How do judges on the Court of Appeal do their work?
After the factums and everything else that needs to be filed have been filed, the information is given to the panel of judges hearing the appeal. The panel is set up at random, usually consisting of three or five judges. The panel judges’ legal counsel and the articling students summarize and brief the case information for the judges. The panel usually has a discussion before hearing the case. We play Devil’s Advocate with one another so we can demonstrate our analysis to one another. The chair of the panel (usually the most senior judge) determines whether in-house research should be done by the judges before hearing the appeal. Judges today prepare more prior to hearing a case than in the past. Considering how complicated the law is today, this preparation allows judges to be more efficient in handing out their judgments. • In this extensive preparation, is there not a chance for a judge to develop a bias before hearing the appeal? The concern about bias is always there. A judge has
