Today's DJ has Complaint to watchdog says 3 appellate justices are too slow: In his complaint sent Tuesday, Jon B. Eisenberg of Healdsburg said the problem appears to be coming mainly from three of the court's longest-serving veterans: Justices Coleman A. Blease and William J. Murray Jr., and Presiding Justice Vance W. Raye.
- "Over the past few years, many of my colleagues and I have become increasingly concerned about lagging performance in the 3rd Appellate District, sharing personal anecdotes about lengthy delays from the completion of a briefing to submission for decision," Eisenberg wrote.
- "The 3rd District had the highest level of pending appeals per justice as of June 30, 2003 -- 19% higher than the statewide average," the 2004 [Annual Stats] report noted. "The 3rd District had the highest level of pending appeals per justice as of June 30, 2018 -- 44% higher than the statewide average," stated the 2019 report, the most recent year available.
- Eisenberg found the court's 10 current justices each produced an average of 96 majority opinions annually since the beginning of 2018. This isn't far from the statewide average, though the highest producing appellate court -- the 4th District's Division Two -- churned out 139 majority opinions annually per justice.
- Blease produced 89, Raye 86 and Murray 37. The only other justice on the 3rd District court to fall below the average was Justice Peter A. Krause. He's delivered 95 majority opinions per year, according to Eisenberg's research, despite being on the court just over two years and having never served as a judge prior to that.
Posts
