Mixed reaction to Judicial Council’s letter to appellate lawyers academy

The Judicial Council of California responded Monday to the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers' recommendations for speeding up appellate cases. The letter was addressed to Elliot L. Bien, a former president of the group who led a task force to explore the reasons for appellate delay.

"We have referred some of your recommendations to the Judicial Council's Appellate Advisory Committee, which is the appropriate body under the rules to consider them. (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 10.40.)," stated the letter signed by the presiding justices of all six California appellate districts. "We will carefully review your other recommendations, although you might be interested to know that some of them -- such as using memorandum opinions and issuing periodic case status reports -- are already employed in many districts."

The academy convened the task force in February after appellate attorney Jon B. Eisenberg filed a still-pending complaint with the Commission on Judicial Performance about delays on the 3rd District Court of Appeal. Eisenberg later filed two unsuccessful petitions to the California Supreme Court asking it to transfer or prioritize long-delayed cases from the 3rd District.

On Oct. 21, Bien sent a letter to the Judicial Council with three key recommendations: having the parties prepare the record, using memorandum opinions in simpler cases, and making it easier to rebalance workloads. The second two approaches mirror recommendations from the 2000 report from the Appellate Process Task Force convened by the Judicial Council. It is informally known by the last name of its chair, Gary E. Strankman, the since retired presiding justice of the 1st District Court of Appeal, Division 1.

"The Academy was honored and delighted to receive today's positive response to our delay-reduction recommendations from all six administrative presiding justices," Bien said in an email. "This is an important statewide issue, and we stand ready to assist the Judicial Council any way we can. We also thank the several other bar organizations that contributed to our work on the issue, and look forward to further collaboration with them as the council's deliberations proceed."

Eisenberg, who served on the Strankman Commission, was not impressed.

"Absent any evidence of meaningful action on the Supreme Court's recommendation for an investigation of decisional delay in the Third District, the Judicial Council's promise to 'carefully review' the Academy's recommendations doesn't inspire much confidence," Eisenberg said via email on Monday. "Meanwhile, some two dozen long-delayed Third District criminal appeals remain uncalendered, including one that's been fully briefed for eight and a half years."

The Judicial Council letter's signers included 3rd District Court of Appeal Presiding Justice Vance W. Raye. A representative of the court did not respond to an email seeking comment.