A discussion of types of cases in which judicial discretion─based on facts and guided by law─is applied in trial courts. Presented at a Seminar for Federal Appellate Judges sponsored by the Federal Judicial Center, May 13-16, 1975

The results of a survey undertaken for the Commission on Revision of the Federal Court Appellate System, in which the attitudes of federal judges regarding appellate oral argument and opinion-writing practices were explored. The author concludes that judges are more satisfied with truncated procedures in the appellate courts than are lawyers; lawyers would opt for more judges and courts to ease the burden on court dockets.

In 1975, the Commission on Revision of the Federal Court Appellate System, chaired by Senator Roman L. Hruska, recommended to the Congress, the President and Chief Justice of the United States that the geographical boundaries of the Fifth and Ninth Circuits be altered to create four circuits. This would be only the second time that the geographical boundaries would be altered since the creation of the then-existing federal circuit court system in 1891. The previous alteration was in 1929 when the Tenth Circuit was created from the then-U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

This historical analysis was prepared as background material for the Commission, and is still considered by many to be the definitive work on the division of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit. The analysis describes events surrounding the 1929 change, and discusses motivating issues that recurred during the debate of the mid-1970's.

These guidelines were first devised for a pilot project in four U.S. District Courts to evaluate the use of videotape, and to develop rules and procedures for the future use of videotape in the courts. The graphics in this publication are crude, hand drawn figures.

Superseded by Guidelines for Pre-Recording Testimony on Videotape Prior to Trial, Second Edition (1976).