The latest on delay

The Recorder has California Appellate Attorney: 3rd District Court Investigated for Case Delays Before Complaint:

• California’s judicial watchdog agency was investigating “decisional delay” in the Third District Court of Appeal even before a retired appellate attorney filed a complaint last year accusing three justices of taking too long to dispose of cases there, newly released documents reveal.
• The most recent statistics from the Judicial Council show that in June 2020, the Third District had the highest number of pending, fully briefed appeals per justice among all six courts of appeal: 74. The statewide average was 41. The court was also the second slowest to process criminal appeals. The Third District took 1,287 days, or just under three and a half years, to handle 90% of its criminal appeals compared to the statewide average of 926 days, or two and a half years.
• Eisenberg has said concerns about the Third District’s pace of work circulated quietly among California’s appellate bar in recent years but lawyers feared criticizing justices on the court. Nearing retirement, Eisenberg began researching the court’s caseload and found what he called in his complaint to the CJP “extraordinary decisional delay.”
• Last year, the Third District hired six new staff attorneys with money allocated through the Judicial Council. The Fifth District Court of Appeal received money for three new attorneys and the Fourth District’s Division Two received money for one.