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.

The mix of cases in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit differs markedly from the case mix of other U.S. courts of appeals. The implications of this difference for judicial workload and judgeship needs, however, have been unclear. At the request of the Subcommittee on Judicial Statistics of the Judicial Conference Committee on Judicial Resources, we conducted this study to assist the subcommittee in assessing judgeship needs in the D.C. Circuit.

This report revises and expands on the January 1996 report to the Bankruptcy Committee evaluating two approaches that refine assessing judicial workload for Mega Chapter 11 cases and recommendations to the committee for facilitating mega cases in the future.

A description of case-management procedures various courts have used to facilitate prompt resolution in asbestos litigation. The report is based on a conference of federal judges, magistrate judges, and clerks. Among the methods described are use of standardized pretrial procedures to avoid duplication of effort, use of calendaring systems to establish firm and credible trial dates, and consolidation of cases for trial to conserve judicial time.