Oral argument is important: recent scholarship shows that a strong performance at oral argument can influence the result of an appeal. In a recent post, we reported that we observed oral argument at the Sixth Circuit and generally found the court to be a “hot” bench. The panels we watched asked the attorneys an average of … Continue Reading
Last August, we discussed recent procedural changes surrounding oral argument in the Sixth Circuit. In an effort to shed more light on the topic of oral argument in the Sixth Circuit in general, we recently observed three days of oral argument. We attended 18 oral arguments presented before various panels that, taken together, were composed … Continue Reading
In a prior post, we found that the Sixth Circuit reverses each federal district court at significantly different rates in civil (including prisoner) cases. The results were so surprising – cases originating in some districts were almost twice as likely to be reversed as cases from other districts – that we decided to run the … Continue Reading
We have previously addressed the Sixth Circuit’s reversal rate, and found that the circuit reverses at a rate very close to the average for all of the circuits. This post will briefly review the reversal rates in civil (including prisoner) cases from each federal district court within the Sixth Circuit. In the past two years, the Sixth Circuit … Continue Reading
Last week, we explored the potential impact of visiting judges on Sixth Circuit precedent. In this post, we will take a quick look at who the visiting judges are. The answer is that visiting judges are overwhelmingly from the nine federal districts courts encompassed by the Sixth Circuit. Over the past two years, fifty-four visiting judges … Continue Reading
This post continues our look at the Sixth Circuit’s practice of using visiting judges. We looked at the past two years (ending in July 2011) and found that 54 visiting judges took part in over nine hundred decisions available on Lexis. Consistent with what we reported earlier (here and here), visiting judges participate in just … Continue Reading
Continuing our exploration of case management practices in the Sixth Circuit, this post compares the Sixth Circuit’s use of visiting judges with that of other circuits and weighs the potential for impact of the visits on the circuit’s procedures. We have previously explained how visiting judges handle a large portion of the Sixth Circuit’s caseload … Continue Reading
The Sixth Circuit first began using staff attorneys in 1971, with a staff of three attorneys. The staff grew to 18 attorneys by 1993, and their duties expanded to reviewing and drafting outcomes for pro se and prisoner-related appeals. Since then, both the number of attorneys and the scope of their responsibilities has grown with … Continue Reading
Even though the burgeoning dockets of the federal courts of appeal are well known (there were nearly 5,000 new appeals in the Sixth Circuit last year) most attorneys would be surprised to learn that over 50% of those cases were decided pursuant to recommendations made by staff attorneys. Like all other circuits, the Sixth Circuit … Continue Reading
We have covered a number of important Sixth Circuit decision on class actions over the past year, including as Randleman v. Fidelity National Title Ins. Co. and Dealer Computer Services, Inc. v. Dub Herring Ford. Though a small percentage of the court’s docket, such cases often have an outsize effect on both precedent within the … Continue Reading
The Sixth Circuit consistently has a high percentage of dissenting opinions – about twice the average of the other circuits. I briefly noted this when comparing the circuits in my response to a recent New York Times article. This post takes a look at some patterns in the dissenting rates of the twelve Sixth Circuit … Continue Reading
This is the second in a series of posts touching on overlooked or misunderstood parts of the Sixth Circuit. We already briefly looked at senior judges, and now we turn to the role of visiting judges. Any Article III federal judge can be assigned to temporarily sit on another federal court under 28 U.S.C. § … Continue Reading
This is the first in a series of posts briefly touching on overlooked or misunderstood parts of the Sixth Circuit. It will look at topics like senior judges, visiting judges, staff attorneys, the role of clerks and case managers, the clerk’s office, the bankruptcy appellate panel, and the circuit mediators. The series begins by looking … Continue Reading
Comparing the court to a sports team, the Cincinnati Enquirer announced the “U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals on 0-15 losing streak,” reporting that the Supreme Court has now reversed fifteen cases in a row from the Sixth Circuit. The article calls this a “poor showing,” but cannot find any pattern in the cases. In … Continue Reading
It is generally understood that federal appellate courts do not often reverse or remand, but the actual statistics are not as well-known. The yearly Judicial Business Report, put out by the Administrative Office, gives the statistics for every circuit. In 2009, the Sixth Circuit decided 590 appeals in private civil appeals on the merits of … Continue Reading
