The Appellate Division’s calendar for the week of September 13, the first week of the new court Term, has been published and is available here. While it may be too soon to make any judgments about how the Appellate Division will handle appeals this Term, the calendar for that week reveals differences in how panels are dealing with their appeals in the first week of the Term.
As discussed here, there are now seven Parts instead of the eight Parts that have been the norm for a number of years. All seven Parts have matters scheduled for the week of September 13. Six of those Parts will hear oral arguments in person. The seventh, Part C, will conduct all oral arguments remotely.
The composition of panels that will hear oral arguments also varies between Parts. Five Parts have four judges each, while the others (Parts C and E) are staffed with five judges. Parts A, B, D, and F have all four judges sitting for oral arguments, in various combinations and permutations, with each judge sitting on at least two oral arguments. In the past, one of the four judges on a Part would be “off” in a given week.
Parts C and E are more in the mold of what has been done before. Three of the four judges on Part C will hear all the oral arguments and act on all the listed cases in which oral argument has been waived. The other two judges are not assigned either to any oral arguments or any waiver cases. Part E will see four of its five judges hearing oral arguments and handling the waiver cases. The fifth judge is “off” for the week.
Finally, Part G will operate in still a different fashion. The waiver cases are spread among all four judges on that Part. But only three of those judges will hear the cases that are listed for oral argument. The effect is that the fourth judge will not need to travel to the site of oral argument but will still have work to do in connection with appeals listed for the week of September 13.