Michigan Court of Appeals

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The Michigan Court of Appeals was created by the Michigan Constitution of 1963, Article VI, Section 1, under which the State of Michigan has "one court of justice." There are four appellate districts in the state of Michigan, and 28 judges who preside on the Court.[1]

Overview

The judicial power of the state is vested exclusively in one court of justice which shall be divided into one supreme court, one court of appeals, one trial court of general jurisdiction known as the circuit court, one probate court, and courts of limited jurisdiction that the legislature may establish by a two-thirds vote of the members elected to and serving in each house.

When it first began operation in 1965, the bench of the Court of Appeals had nine judges: Chief Judge T. John Lesinski, Chief Judge pro tempore John W. Fitzgerald, and Judges Robert B. Burns, John H. Gillis, Donald E. Holbrook, Thomas Giles Kavanagh, Louis D. McGregor, Timothy C. Quinn, and John D. Watts. Ronald L. Dzierbicki was Clerk of the Court. Offices were originally located only in Lansing, Detroit and Grand Rapids. The Southfield office was opened in 1994, and was moved to Troy in 2004.

Court Size Increases

In 1969, the Legislature increased the size of the bench to 12 judges, and further increases occurred in 1974 (18 judges), in 1988 (24 judges), and in 1993 (28 judges). During this same period, annual filings ranged from a low of 1,235 in 1965 to a high of 13,352 in 1992. By the latter half of the 1990s, the Court's filings averaged more than 8,000 cases annually.

Districts

The Court of Appeals is divided into four districts with the following offices:

Organization

Since its inception, the Michigan Court of Appeals has distinguished itself as an innovative institution. Its central staff of research attorneys was the first of its kind in the United States. Its mainframe docket computer system was a national prototype when it was implemented in 1978. That legacy system was retired in July 1999, in favor of a client/server browser system that will allow the Court to take full advantage of electronic filing and other technological advances during the next decade.

Organizationally, the Court has continued to evolve as well. Originally, all filings were processed through the Lansing office of the Court, and new files were only distributed among the outlying district offices of the Clerk after jurisdiction was confirmed in mandatory cases and leave was granted in discretionary matters. In 1998, this process was decentralized, and the district offices of the Clerk are now capable of fully processing all cases. Case management has been substantially streamlined and each case is now moved towards final disposition as quickly as possible under the timelines set by the court rules.

The Court's Internal Operating Procedures were first published during this same period. (See 231 Mich App.) The IOPs have proven to be of great value to the bar and their use by attorneys and individuals appearing before the Court in pro per has also improved the Court's ability to resolve each case smoothly and quickly.

The Court of Appeals' mandate drives its continued evolution as a critical element of the justice system in Michigan: "To secure the just, speedy, and economical determination of every action and to avoid the consequences of error that does not affect the substantial rights of the parties." (Michigan Court Rule 1.105.)[2]

Judges

Current Judges and Year Elected or Appointed to Bench

Partisan Michigan 'reform' group proposes removing judges

The Reform Michigan Government Now (RMBN) "insisted its proposal to amend Michigan's Constitution to overhaul the judiciary was intended to be non-partisan in nature - and effect." However, in reading the PowerPoint presentation from the the UAW Region 1-C website, the opposite is evident. Specifically, it is their goal to change the Michigan Court of Appeals from 28 judges to 21. This removes six Republican judges and only one Democratic judge. It would remove no judges appointed by Governor Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat.


According to Dolan Media, "Michigan Lawyers Weekly asked RMGN spokeswoman Dianne Byrum for the specifics behind RMGN's Court of Appeals proposal. When asked why RMGN chose seven as the number of Court of Appeals judgeships it wanted to eliminate, Byrum didn't answer the question. Instead, she said 'the net reduction of judges' wasn't intended 'to mirror the reduction in size of the Legislature or Executive branches.' When pressed for clarification, Byrum said the 'RMGN proposal calls for a reorganizing of the courts.' And, later, after again being asked why RMGN chose to reduce the Court of Appeals by seven judges, she said the seven-judge reduction was 'part of a reorganization of the courts.' 'It is more about reorganizing than picking an exact number to reduce at the Court of Appeals,' Byrum said. Lawyers Weekly then asked why RMGN chose 'term expiration' and, in particular, the Jan. 1, 2011, expiration date, as its 'reduction' criteria. Again, Byrum didn't the answer the question. Instead, she said '[t]erm expiration refers to the end of the elected term for the seven judges that are eliminated.' Then, she said, the 'seven judges whose term[s] end in [2011] are the Court of Appeals judges that are reduced in the proposal.'" [3] The judges that would be removed if the Reform Michigan Government Now is successful, are as follows: Pat Donofrio, Joel Hoekstra, Donald Owens, David Sawyer, William Whitbeck, Kurtis Wilder, and Helene White--the only Democrat affected by these removals.[4]

Evidence of Democratic Maneuvers

A labor intern for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy unearthed a PowerPoint presentation entitled "Changing the Rules of politics in Michigan to help the Democrats." The presentation revealed that the Democrats' primary aim is to obtain redistricting advantages that would prove particularly helpful when it came to the state judiciary. For the complete 32-slide presentation, click here.

Slide eight of the presentation stated that obtaining a majority in all branches of the Michigan government was “an extremely expensive and very long shot proposition.” But, according to the presentation, “Redistricting reform by itself will not be approved by the voters.” In order to succeed, “redistricting reform must be a small part of a larger, popular state government reform proposal.” Specifically, the presentation suggested reducing the number of Supreme Court Justices by two, requiring Justices Stephen Markman and Robert Young to vacate their seats--and both just happen to be cornerstones of the court's Republican majority. Additionally, it seeks to "Reduce the Court of Appeals from 28 to 20 judges, most of them former Republican Governor John Engler appointees." Prior to the discovery of the PowerPoint presentation, the Michigan Democratic Party released a campaign commercial that stated that if the Michigan Supreme Court did not vote in favor of the proposition, then the court was biased. After the PowerPoint discovery, the Reform Michigan Now Group has quieted that approach.[5]

See Also

External Links

References

  1. ↑ Michigan judicial branch org chart
  2. ↑ History of the Court: State Page
  3. ↑ Dolan Media
  4. ↑ Dolan Media
  5. ↑ "A Partisan Pill for Michigan's Foundational Problems"
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