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33 A.B.A. J. 426 (1947)
Judicial Administration: The Avalanche of Appellate Court Opinions

handle is hein.journals/abaj33 and id is 452 raw text is: 4
Judicial Administration:
The Avalanche of Appellate Court Opinions
by Clarence M. Hanson • Judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court
0 it never rains but it pours'. That is the gist of what Judge Clarence M. Hanson,
of Los Angeles, finds in the article following as to the deluge of Appellate Court
opinions. Changing his metaphor to call it an avalanche, he gives a trenchant
discussion of a situation which is an increasing problem for practising lawyers, for
judges, for teachers of law, and for all who try to provide means by which the
profession can keep abreast of the decisional law. Characteristically, Judge Hanson
thinks that something should be done about the situation, and should be initiated
under the auspices of our Association.
Judge Hanson was graduated from the State University of Iowa in 1910 and from
the Harvard Law School in 1913, and practised law in Los Angeles. The Governor
of California appointed him to the Superior Court of Los Angeles County on January
1, 1939. In 1940 he was elected for a six-year term; in 1946 he was re-elected. By
appointment of the State Judicial Council, he served in 1941-42 as a pro tern Justice
of the District Court of Appeals, and wrote forty-two opinions. Our readers will
recall his controversial article Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law-An Out-
moded Relic of Stage-Coach Days (32 A.B.A.J. 52; January, 1946).
CLARENCE M. HANSON

0 The mounting tavalanche of Appel-
late Court opinions, in number, and
in bulk,' is appalling, not only to
the Bar2 but to a host of Appellate
Court justices as well!3 But, as Mark
Twain once remarked about the
weather, everybody criticizes but
nobody does anything about it. At
times it may seem that nothing can
be done about it, but this cannot be
true. Before we explore the possibili-
ties of what can be done, we should
inventory and assay, not only the
viewpoints of the bench and Bar of
today, but of yesterday as well.4
426   American Bar Association Journal

In the thirty-four years' tenure of
Chief Justice Marshall, the Supreme
Court handed down only 1215 writ-
ten opinions-an average of thirty-
six per year for all the justices of the
great Court; of this total, Marshall
alone authored an average of fif-
teen per year, or alhost one-half of
those of all his associates.5 Yet, even
fifteen opinions per year per justice
would today be regarded as a very
minor work-load.
In Marshall's period and for sev-
eral decades afterwards, the Supreme
Court definitely was not under any
real work-pressure, and the history

of the time indicates that the lawyers
likewise were not overwhelmed with
cases. Except for appellate court
opinions, there was in that day a Sa-
hara in the field of legal literature.
The profession of that day expected
1. The total number of pages of decision for
the five year period ending in 1913 was 175,000
pages a year in the United States as against 5000
in the English Reports-7 A.B.A.J. 270; June, 1921.
By actual count made by the West Publishing
Company, it appears that in the year 1945 the
cases (not pages) reported in the National Re-
porter. System totalled 18,222-and this was a
war year! Quite apart from the tremendous waste
of paper, is the expense to lawyers of the books
and shelf-room  and the time-element involved
where exhaustive research is necessary.
2. John W. Davis 'The Case for the Case
Lawyer-41 A.B.A. Repts. 766. Henry E. Randall,

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