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Bar News - December 14, 2001 A Productive Year for the Supreme Court DURING 2001, THE NH Supreme Court ramped up its pace of hearing and disposing of cases and declared the 3JX process a success. Through the first 10 months of the year, the court issued 232 published opinions and more than 90 unpublished 3JX decisions. This reduced by two-thirds the backlog of argued cases awaiting opinions. In the fall of 2000, at the height of the court’s impeachment-related paralysis, there were 185 argued cases awaiting opinion; that backlog is now down to less than 60, which includes many cases argued in the past few months. The court’s goal is to have all of the cases argued through October disposed of by the end of December, said Supreme Court Clerk Eileen Fox. The backlog of accepted cases awaiting oral argument is also down significantly: 140 at the end of October 2000, and 60 as of the end of November. Another factor in the court’s progress on its backlog is that appellate activity is tapering off: Only 623 appeals had been filed through the end of October, which translates to an annual pace of about 775. If the trend holds, said former Court Clerk Howard J. Zibel, this year will be the first in 10 years in which the number of notices of appeals has been under 800. The 3JX process, which celebrates its first anniversary this month, has provided a major boost to the court’s case-processing abilities. As of the end of November, the court had heard 105 cases in the three-judge expedited process begun last December, and all but 16 have been decided, with only four referred to the full court for re-argument and decision. Assignment to the 3JX process is not voluntary. During the Bar’s "Developments in the Law" CLE in October, Zibel said the justices’ decisions on matters referred to the 3JX process are well thought out and their record in those cases belies initial concerns that the expedited process would result in affirmances in most cases. "The 3 JX is not a rubber stamp," said Zibel, who is now general counsel to the Supreme Court, a position he assumed at the court this fall. "For cases through October, 65 percent were affirmed, which is close to the percentage of cases affirmed by full opinions." 3JX orders are not published on the court’s Web site and are not citable as Supreme Court precedent in other cases; however, the orders do show judges’ reasoning and provide insight into the court’s views on particular issues. The 3JX orders are published in Bar News and are posted on this site under Publications.
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