{"id":27701,"date":"2018-04-30T10:43:57","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T15:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=27701"},"modified":"2018-04-30T10:43:57","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T15:43:57","slug":"appellate-work-getting-the-law-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2018\/04\/appellate-work-getting-the-law-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Appellate Work: Getting the Law Right"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, I authored <a href=\"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2018\/04\/12\/the-need-to-educate-the-nonlegal-public-about-lawyers-and-the-legal-system\/\">a post<\/a> on this same blog discussing the first of two frequent observations I\u2019ve made since joining the Milwaukee County District Attorney\u2019s Office as a prosecutor and rookie lawyer in February of last year. There, I expressed my belief that we must do more to educate the nonlegal public about what it is we do as lawyers. Here, however, I wish to share what is perhaps as much a personal conclusion as it is an observation\u2014appellate work is where it\u2019s at.<\/p>\n<p>In the last six or so months, I\u2019ve been tasked on several occasions to represent the State before the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. These experiences have been enjoyable for several reasons\u2014not the least of which is that I do enjoy writing about the law.<\/p>\n<p>More generally, I have come to prefer legal argument over arguing facts. For these reasons, I expect that my career in the law will naturally gravitate toward appellate work. This is not to say I that I don\u2019t enjoy trying cases to juries, but rather it is acknowledgment of one introspective observation.<\/p>\n<p>As I\u2019ve arrived at this conclusion, I\u2019ve also realized that I\u2019m most interested in getting the law right\u2014regardless of whether doing so helps or hurts any particular position I\u2019ve taken in a case. That said, what I find most appealing about appellate work is that I\u2019ve come to believe that appellate courts generally prioritize getting it right above all else.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t mean to suggest that the same hasn\u2019t also been a common goal of each of the trial courts in which I\u2019ve appeared, but the sheer volume of cases processed in our trial courts often make getting it right a goal rather than a custom or an expectation. During trial (and even during many other hearings in the circuit court), the parties and the court alike often must make decisions on the fly and sometimes do so at the expense of getting it right (which, I suppose, serves to keep our appellate courts in business).<\/p>\n<p>Time to fully develop an issue and think through to an informed conclusion is a luxury not often enjoyed in our trial courts\u2014particularly, in busy misdemeanor courts where it is common for sixty or more cases to be calendared in a single court on any given day. Such busy calendars coupled with the fact that trial courts are often bound by specific timelines in which they must act (e.g., speedy trial demands, competency evaluations, etc.) sometimes results in judicial efficiency taking priority over most else.<\/p>\n<p>Appellate courts don\u2019t appear to suffer the same struggles. Rather, parties have ample time to develop their strongest arguments and reviewing courts generally have time sufficient to fully and deeply consider the issues as they\u2019re presented before issuing decisions.<\/p>\n<p>Though I suspect few would disagree that the majority of our trial courts are overworked, I don\u2019t endeavor to engage in that conversation here. Rather, I\u2019ve simply sought to offer a glimpse into some of what I\u2019ve observed\u2014and even concluded\u2014since embarking on my career in the law. While I understand that appellate work is something less than appealing to some of us, I take the opposite view and instead look forward to each opportunity I may have to do more of this important work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, I authored a post on this same blog discussing the first of two frequent observations I\u2019ve made since joining the Milwaukee County District Attorney\u2019s Office as a prosecutor and rookie lawyer in February of last year. There, I expressed my belief that we must do more to educate the nonlegal public about what it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":253,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[351,68,122,15,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni-contributor","category-judges-judicial-process","category-public","category-courts","category-wisconsin","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/253"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27701"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27702,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27701\/revisions\/27702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}