Appellate News: Update on Civil Appeal Timing

The appellate team of Cardelli Lanfear wanted to provide an update regarding the general timing trends for civil cases in the Michigan Court of Appeals.  Based on information provided by the Court for 2018, the following average timelines are notable:

• Approximately 6 months to complete briefing in an appeal (from the date of filing).
• After briefing, approximately 8 months for an oral argument is held.
• Approximately 1 month, on average, for an opinion to be issued after oral argument.

Thus, in 2018, it took approximately 15 months for civil cases to be filed, briefed, heard, and resolved via opinion. This figure is significantly quicker than recent historical averages, continuing the trend of improving the speed of resolving appeals.  It was not that along ago that civil appeals took 18 to 21 months (or longer) to resolve.

If you have any questions, of course, please feel free to contact Anthony Caffrey.