A Practical Guide to Appellate Judging

This article is designed primarily for two groups of people: lawyers or trial judges who are wondering whether to become appellate judges, and people who have recently become appellate judges.But observers of appeal courts may also enjoy a peek behind the curtain.I write this after twenty-seven years as a justice on three Canadian Courts of Appeal. 1 I have done three studies about how appellate courts and judges do and should operate in the United States and Canada.Two studies were for the Canadian Judicial Council.Some very able and very busy American federal and state appeal courts gave me an intimate view of themselves hard at work; I also have had some part in training *Justice of Appeal, recently retired, Court of Appeal of Alberta, of the Northwest Territories, and the Territory of Nunavit.1. Canada has basically a fused court system: Most superior courts are both federal and provincial.Their judges are all federally appointed (and have tenure to age seventyfive).There are almost no intermediate Courts of Appeal in Canada.2. And a long time ago, I had some experience in teaching and writing on time management.I have written for years on civil procedure, and chaired Alberta's Rules of Court Committee.3. The appeal process will continue to involve reams of paper until all appeals are fully electronic.For news of recent developments in this connection, the reader might consult Philip G. Espinosa, The Paperless Court of Appeals Comes of Age, 15 J. APP.PRAC.& PROCESS 99 (2014) (describing the technologies adopted by an intermediate appeal court in the state of Arizona as it has moved toward paperless procedures).