Reforms in the Business and Operating Manner of the Ohio Courts of Appeals

This article will review, and comment upon, some of the techniques available to the Ohio appeals courts. The task of preparing this article was facilitated greatly by the many Ohio appeals court judges who responded to a survey letter, reproduced in the appendix, sent by the authors in the Summer of 1981. The results of this survey are incorporated in the following pages, though we are confident they do not represent the judges' last words. To promote further dialogue, we have deleted references to the names of the particular judges whose remarks are noted, and have instead assigned each judge an identifying number.

This work contains three major sections. First, the article demonstrates the need for some reform in the Ohio courts of appeals. Second, reforms in the business of the Ohio courts of appeals are suggested. Such reforms would alter the longstanding policy of "one trial, one review" by making certain appellate jurisdiction subject to the appellate courts' discretion.

Third, possible reforms in the operating manner of the Ohio appeals courts are examined. This section is divided into three significant parts, which discuss possible reforms during the prehearing, hearing, and posthearing stages of an appeal. While the views expressed within this article are at times tentative, hopefully they will nonetheless be found worthy of consideration and in some small way aid the courts of appeals in discovering ways to cope with the growing crisis.