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One Size Fits All?

By Jefferson M. Gray
November 28, 2006

Today, a Procrustean 'one-size-fits-all' approach increasingly characterizes federal appellate practice, particularly for attorneys who handle complex conspiracy or white-collar cases. While page limits for appellate briefs date back to at least the 1940s, within the past 20 years they have been applied with a new and sometimes surprising inflexibility. No matter how long the trial, how complicated its facts, or how numerous the appellate issues may be, the day has passed when counsel can assume that requests to file a brief in excess of the standard word limits will be granted.

The Rapid Expansion of Appellate Caseloads

This development reflects the explosion in appellate caseloads since the early 1980s. In the Fourth Circuit (the court with which I am most familiar), the number of appeals jumped from 2200 in 1980 to 5000 in 2005 'a 140% increase. Other circuits have experienced even greater increases. But most circuit courts have received only a handful of new judges to cope with their swelling workloads, and political disputes have sometimes resulted in judgeships remaining unfilled for years.

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