An anthology of Center reports on handling appeals. The editors selected writings from the twenty-five published and unpublished reports on the topic the Center has supported in the last fifteen years. Eighteen of these reports are reprinted in whole or in part. The editors' introductions to each of the book's five parts provide descriptions or summaries of the reports not reprinted.

Introduction: Robert A. Katzman and Michael Tonry

Part One: Case Management, 13

• Introduction, by Robert A. Katzman and Michael Tonry, 15
• An An Evaluation of the Civil Appeals Management Plan: An Experiment in Judicial Administration , by Jerry Goldman, 21
• A Reevaluation of the Civil Appeals Management Plan, by Anthony Partridge and Allan Lind, 89
• The Seventh Circuit Preappeal Program: An Evaluation, by Jerry Goldman, 171
• Administration of Justice in a Large Appellate Court: The Ninth Circuit Innovations Project, by Joe S. Cecil, 207

Part Two: Case Weighting, 293

• Introduction, Michael Tonry, 295
• A Summary of the Third Circuit Time Study, by Division of Research, Federal Judicial Center, 299
• Appellate Court Caseweights, by Division of Research, Federal Judicial Center, 309
• The Cases of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, by Gordon Bermant, Patricia A. Lombard, and Carroll Seron, 337

Part Three: Oral Arguments, Briefs, and Opinions, 389

• Introduction, by Robert A. Katzman and Michael Tonry, 391
• Deciding Cases Without Argument: An Examination of Four Courts of Appeals, by Joe S. Cecil and Donna Stienstra, 397
• Appeals Without Briefs: Evaluation of an Appeals Expediting Program in the Ninth Circuit, by John E. Shapard, 441
• An Evaluation of Limited Publication in the United States Courts of Appeals: The Price of Reform, by William L. Reynolds and William M. Richman, 455
• Unpublished Dispositions: Problems of Access and Use in the Courts of Appeals, by Donna Stienstra, 497

Part Four: Administration, 535

• Introduction, by Robert A. Katzman and Michael Tonry, 537 
• The Impact of the Circuit Executive Act, by John T. McDermott and Steven Flanders, 543
• The First Decade of the Circuit Executive Act: An Evaluation, by John W. Macy, Jr., 629
• Screening Practices and the Use of Para-Judicial Personnel in the U.S. Courts of Appeal: A Study in the Fourth Circuit, by Steven Flanders and Jerry Goldman, 641
• Operation of the Federal Judicial Councils, by Steven Flanders and John T. McDermott, 657
• Administering the Federal Judicial Circuits: A Survey of Chief Judges' Approaches and Procedures, by Russell R. Wheeler and Charles W. Nihan, 691

Part Five: Technology, 743

• Introduction, Michael Tonry, 745
• The Impact of Word Processing and Electronic Mail on United States Courts of Appeals, by Larry Farmer and J. Michael Greenwood, 749
• Follow-Up Study of Word Processing and Electronic Mail in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, by J. Michael Greenwood, 801

This report presents a mutlivariate analysis of factors associated with litigation costs in a sample of recently closed civil cases. It uses data first presented in the Center's October 2009 Preliminary Report to the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules and is based on a national case-based survey on the costs of litigation under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

This report summarizes findings on jury-trial demands from court electronic records for civil cases terminated in fiscal years 2010–2019.

The Judicial Conference Committee on Court Administration and Case Management (CACM) asked the Federal Judicial Center to develop and administer a short survey of district court judges to assess the frequency with which jurors use social media to communicate about cases during trial and deliberation. The survey also sought to identify strategies judges have found to be effective and appropriate in curbing this behavior. This report presents the findings from the survey. A subsequent survey in 2014 also considered attorneys' use of social media.