Abstract
A Virginia citizen injured in an automobile accident in 1988 who is denied compensation through trial court error will wait an average of 1,165 days (3.2 years) after trial for the Supreme Court of Virginia to rectify the matter. Of course, that wait is only for the seventeen percent of cases that the supreme court elects to review, since Virginia is one of the only states that grants no right of appeal in most civil and criminal cases. By way of limited contrast, a civil appeal in the North Carolina Supreme Court averages be- tween 241 days and 257 days. The Kentucky Supreme Court aver- ages eight and one-half to eleven months from the trial court decision to the appellate court decision, and the Kentucky Court of Appeals averages fourteen months for the same process. However, if the Virginia citizen's case is a workers compensation claim, a domestic relations case, or an administrative agency case, that citizen will wait only eight to eleven months for an answer from the Virginia Court of Appeals.
Recommended Citation
Julie M. Carpenter,
Appellate Delay as a Catalyst for Change in Virginia,
23
U. Rich. L. Rev.
141
(1988).
Available at:
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/lawreview/vol23/iss1/7