Report of the Judicial Council on Expediting the Work of the Supreme Court

The problem is the work load of the supreme court. According to the two most recent chief justices, Judge Hamley who has just left the rostrum, and Judge Donworth, who is here in the audience, the Supreme Court of the State of Washington is falling rather rapidly behind. In the May term of this year it was impossible for the court to set all of the cases that were ready for assignment. In the September term many cases now ready for assignment will go unset and cannot be set until the January term and the backlog of cases is increasing.

Chief Justice Donworth tells me that the court is now more than half a term behind in the backlog of cases. In other words, speaking as of now, probably at the beginning of August, 1956, there are a great many cases now ready for argument which cannot be heard until the January term in court and will not be disposed of, probably, until several months afterward.