“It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be tomorrow. Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed?”
— James Madison, Federalist 62
Oral argument on appeal is often seen as the main event, especially through the client's eyes. But when you get a cold bench with few questions asked by the appellate judges, there is little to report back to the client. This new analysis gives you something to say.
Appellate attorney Kirk Jenkins has an analysis of questions asked by California appellate justices. As one might expect, questions asked of the appellant tends (somewhat) to forebode affirmance of the judgment (the appellant loses). And where there are questions asked of the respondent, that, too, tends to bode ill for the respondent (though less reliably).
https://lnkd.in/gFghfez