A One-Man Supreme Court: Olympia Weighs 500 Cases and 16-Hour Reading Days
A legislative investigation hears that Washington’s high court has misstated facts and been crushed by its workload — with one justice sometimes reading an entire case alone.
Olympia — Proof has been brought before the legislative committee which is investigating the Washington state supreme court that in a number of cases the court has in its decisions seriously misstated facts. That the court has made numerous errors in many cases is generally known to members of the bar. This condition of affairs is attributed to the immense volume of work the court has to handle.
Last year there were 500 cases filed in the supreme court. With each case came all the pleadings, a transcript of the evidence, briefs of both sides, and in addition the attorneys usually made an oral argument to the court. In one case alone the evidence was of such volume that one judge spent 14 days and nights reading it, putting in an average of 16 hours a day. If each one of the nine judges had been forced to read this case in full, where would the court have got in disposing of the 500 cases before it?
Until a few months ago, although the state supreme court actually had seven members, it was actually and practically a “one man” court. That is to say, in the majority of cases disposed of, but one justice read all of the evidence and the record, although a majority of all of the court made it a rule to read the briefs and hear and discuss the oral arguments.
This enormous work could be obviated if the legislature were to pass a law condensing all cases filed, so that all members of the supreme court might have the time to read each one.
“Until a few months ago, although the state supreme court actually had seven members, it was actually and practically a “one man” court.”
The story describes a court so overloaded that one judge could spend more than two weeks reading a single case. Modern debates over judicial backlogs, opinion length, and court staffing echo the same basic problem: too much record for too few readers.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.