Is the appellate process unfair?

Today's DJ is blessed with another must-read essay/jeremiad by SFSC Judge Karnow, this one titled The Cost of Process. He begins with some stark realities:

• Our civil justice system comes at a very high cost.
• The system is so complicated that litigants need counsel, but few can afford that.
• The fact that courts are inaccessible to a very large percentage of the population, with a deeply disparate impact on certain groups, destroys efforts to (1) make the legal system more transparent to the public we say we are serving, (2) demonstrate our accountability, and (3) have the public invested in, and trust, the system.

He then focuses on appellate review as an example of a system that is too complex and costly:

There are rules about the differences between writs and appeals, about settled statements, statements of decision, the jurisdictional time requirements for a notice of appeal, and what is, and is not, embraced by a notice. All these things are essential issues for the trial litigant cognizant of the right to an appeal. It's so complicated we have appellate specialists, and guides devoted, solely, to appellate practice.

He concludes that because the "problem is systemic," "[s]olutions, if we have them, will be as well."