Trials and appeals are rare exceptions to routine case disposition in U.S. courts

Evidence

Important as these processes are, they comprise only a small portion of the activities of U.S. courts. Appellate courts can review lower court rulings only if litigants appeal those rulings, and most litigants do not appeal. Trial courts can conduct trials only when there is an ongoing dispute between two parties. In criminal cases, however, most defendants plead guilty before trial, and, in most civil cases, parties settle rather than go to trial. Thus, a complete understanding of court operations requires looking beyond the formal processes of trial and appeal, which will be the focus of the next two chapters. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1601

Categorization

• XREF: Frames why plea bargaining and settlement, covered in later chapters, matter more than the televised trial process. — connects to: Trials shape outcomes even in cases that never reach trial. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 789; Few appealed cases succeed past the first-level appellate courts — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 893; Litigant demand, not judicial discretion, determines district court dockets — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 275 (+16 more)

Broader Connections

• Civil justice reform uniformly pushes settlement so trials become anomalous exceptions #corroborates (1.00) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2384
• Civil trials are anomalies in a system built to promote settlement #corroborates (1.00) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1195
• Whether courts address problems at the opportune time is largely a matter of chance #complicates (0.85) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2852
• Judicial rulings often fail to secure compliance or resolve conflict #complicates (0.85) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 211
• Civil cases are typically settled in the shadow of potential trial #complicates (0.80) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2161
• Courts sometimes reach wrong outcomes to avoid bad future rules #complicates (0.80) — Frederick Schauer, Thinking Like a Lawyer, 548
• Litigated cases are a biased sample, skewing toward hard ones #complicates (0.80) — Frederick Schauer, Thinking Like a Lawyer, 449
• Ad hoc adjudication breaks litigant participation and undermines its legitimacy #complicates (0.80) — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 3312
• Case negotiations occur in the shadow of the law set by trial outcomes #complicates (0.80)
• Some trials dispute legal application while facts go uncontested. #complicates (0.75) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 798