What is a state or U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals? In the earlyhistory of America, each Supreme Court justice traveled to a groupof states to hold appeals court cases that had been referred fromthe district courts. While an associate Supreme Court justice mayoccasionally act in an appellate decision (such as a last-minutedeath penalty appeal), there are now too many cases for the ninejustices to hear.

Cases for which federal appeals courts have jurisdiction includethose involving treaties, patents, bankruptcies, issues ofconstitutionality (occasionally involving unusually large punitivedamage awards), cases involving ambassadors, admiralty cases,habeas corpus, interstate disputes, diversity of venuesituations, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA),the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA) and similar U.S.government cases. Under the U.S. Constitution the state courtshandle everything else. In the federal court system the districtcourt is the trial court. In states the trial court may havedifferent names: the superior court, the county court, and in NewYork the trial court is called the “supreme” court, while thehigher court is the Court of Appeals.

The Appeal

There is usually a period of time between the filing of anappeal and the court's findings—often as long as a year or more.The decision may be brief: affirmation of the trial court'sdecision, reversal and return of the case to the trial court toobtain more information before making its judgment (often rejectinga “summary judgment” by the trial court), or a lengthily wordedopinion on the law involved in the case, with possible concurringor dissenting opinions from other appellate justices.

But what if the parties are still not satisfied with theappellate ruling? Then the matter goes to the state or U.S. SupremeCourt for federal court cases, which may elect to hear the case orreject it, allowing the appellate decision to stand. Acceptance iscalled a writ of certiorari, implying that the highercourt has accepted the case for review.

Perhaps all this explains why “litigation” should be a lastresort for an insurer, and why adjusters need to make the bestpossible decisions early in each claim in order to avoidlitigation. True, some litigation cannot be avoided, or the claimmay actually begin when the insured is sued with no prior notice tothe insurer – but even then there are ways to request or obtainextensions while investigation continues, or there are ways toarbitrate or mediate with the parties without the “shooting war” ofa trial. Unless it is absolutely in the insurer's best interest togo to trial, a trial should be viewed as a failure on the part ofthe claims department to resolve matters without the court'shelp.

How does one know what previous appellate courts have decided?In state courts, trial court decisions are rarely published exceptlocally, but state appellate courts may elect to publish or notpublish their decisions. These are recorded in regional“reporters,” collections of court decisions that list the volumeand page number, and the court making the decision. Once 999volumes are filled, the volume sequence moves to the next number.The case is named by the appellant v. the appellee, the citationand year, i.e., Smith v. Jones, 123 So.2d 456 (Ala. App.2nd Dist., 1992). If it is a state's Supreme Court decision, thenthe indicator is that the appellate designation is missing. Statesalso record their decisions, usually with a volume number or yearand the case number, i.e., (2015 Ohio 250).

Federal courts may also decide to publish or not publish thetrial court's decision. For a district court decision, theindicator will be the supplemental volume, page and district:Smith v. Jones, 123 F.Supp.3d 456 (S.D. Ohio, 2001).Appellate decisions are shown by the involved Circuit Court:Smith v. Jones, 123 F.3d 456 (6th Cir., 2002). There are12 federal appellate circuits and seven state reporting districts.Next month we will continue our look at litigation.