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The Arkansas Supreme Court was created in 1836 and met for the
first time on January 24, 1837. The Court established, as one of its
early goals, a standard of fairness and speedy dispatch in its
deliberations and opinion process.
For many years, the Court operated with one of the nation's
heaviest per-judge appellate court workloads. The creation of the
Court of Appeals in 1978 greatly eased the burden, but the number of
cases continued to grow. The expansion of the Court of Appeals in
1996 and 1997 from six to twelve judges has greatly improved the
administration of justice at the appellate court level. With slight
revisions in the rules which divide cases between the Supreme Court
and Court of Appeals, cases have been shifted from the Supreme Court
to the Court of Appeals. This has decreased the per-judge average of
the Supreme Court without increasing the per-judge average of the
Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court's historical dedication to its
"fast track" system, where citizens are assured of a written opinion,
on average, within two weeks of the time of submission, continues to
be unique among state courts of last resort in the United States.
The workload of appellate courts is generally measured by the
number of cases filed (including appeals, petitions, and motions) and
disposed of during the year and by counting the number of majority
opinions which were written by each justice. The shifting of cases
to the Court of Appeals has decreased the Supreme Courts measured
workload for each of the last two years but, in addition, both
appellate courts have shared in this year's historic decrease in
overall caseloads for all Arkansas courts. The number of appeals
filed in the Supreme Court totaled 370, a decrease from the previous
year's total of 413 and the 1996-97 level of 562. Because of a
substantial increase in the number of petitions and motions, the
total caseload of appeals, petitions, and motions filed was 848, a
slight increase from 845 the previous year. The Supreme Court has a
good record for maintaining the currency of its cases. With the
decrease in the number of filings, the Court was able to decrease the
number of appeals pending at the end of the fiscal year from 315 in
1996-97 to 253 in 1997-98, and 243 this year, a drop of over 25%.
Justices also averaged writing and publishing over 43 majority
opinions during the year, in addition to concurring, dissenting and
per curiam opinions. Total opinions averaged 58 per justice.
It required an average of 796 days in criminal cases and 771 days
in civil cases for an action to be filed in the trial court and a
final decision to be reached in the Supreme Court. This marks a 10%
decrease in civil cases but a 9% increase in criminal cases over the
previous year. Only a small percentage of this time, however, is
spent at the appellate level. From the time a case is submitted to
the Supreme Court, a decision is handed down, on average, in 13 days
for criminal cases and 15 days for civil cases.
The Court was also very active in dealing with a myriad of
administrative issues throughout the court system. With the
expansion of the size of the Court of Appeals, the division of cases
between the two courts has been revised. A new process for the
review of all cases by an appellate review attorney has been
implemented with a revised rule on the types of cases taken by each
court. The Court also responded to a number of recommendations from
its committees and effected several changes in court rules and
procedures. Through its administrative and adjudicative
responsibilities, the Court has remained committed to its original
goal of providing its citizens with a forum which provides fair and
impartial decisions in a short period of time.
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