Do you have a large “to read” pile on your desk containing magazines, journals, and newspapers? You may also have an online “to read” pile. Do these piles mentally torture you every day you walk into your office? Well, I have “the pile of all piles,”and the only reason that I can come up with for not burning it is that I sometimes find interesting appellate articles that I want to share with our readers.
For those of you who either have not reached this article in your own pile or gave up trying to read everything a long time ago, below is a link to a March 2012 article regarding the workload of the North Carolina Supreme Court:
While the editorial ultimately comes down on the side that the North Carolina Supreme Court should issue more opinions, the author attempts to provide some balance to the debate by including comments from various people on the subject (including our very own former Supreme Court Chief Justice, Jim Exum). Significantly, the author interviewed Chief Justice Sarah Parker, who offered insightful comments on why she believes the thoroughness of the Court’s deliberations are not accurately reflected by the number of opinions issued by the Supreme Court.
While I have personally worked on various projects with several current Supreme Court Justices and know that they work very hard, the bar has expressed frustration about the inability to get cases–especially conflicting Court of Appeals opinions–before the North Carolina Supreme Court.
As the debate continues around me, I have determined that the best thing I can do is get back to my reading pile.
P.S. Please share with us any interesting North Carolina appellate court articles you run into. It will not take much effort to prove that you have your reading pile under better control than I have mine.