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Full-Text Articles in Jurisprudence
Maine's Overburdened Law Court: Has The Time Come For A Maine Appeals Court?, Peter L. Murray
Maine's Overburdened Law Court: Has The Time Come For A Maine Appeals Court?, Peter L. Murray
Maine Law Review
For the entire 178 years of Maine's statehood, its Supreme Judicial Court, “sitting as the Law Court,” has served as Maine's appellate court of first and last resort for all appeals from its trial courts of general jurisdiction. Over this time span, and particularly over the last three decades, the growth in number and complexity of civil and criminal appeals has placed the Law Court under an extremely heavy burden of cases. The sheer number of the appeals which the Law Court is expected to consider and decide risks exceeding the capacity of the institution for careful, thorough, and deliberate …
Abuse Of Discretion: Maine's Application Of A Malleable Appellate Standard, Andrew M. Mead
Abuse Of Discretion: Maine's Application Of A Malleable Appellate Standard, Andrew M. Mead
Maine Law Review
It is not unusual for an appellate court to simply announce: “In the circumstances of this case, the trial justice did not abuse his discretion ....” No further clarification or elaboration is offered by the learned justices of the court. The parties are left with a final judgment, but little understanding of the appellate court's review process. Although the objective of finality is satisfied, the objective of clarity is ignored. When litigants and counsel are faced with similar factual or legal circumstances in the future, they remain without guidance or insight into the factors that the appellate court deemed to …