Using the Ga. Supreme Court’s Website to Prepare for Argument / Stay Current on the Law

Yesterday, I assisted with an oral argument at the Supreme Court of Georgia. I was on the 2pm calendar (The Court usually sits in two sessions). As I often do when I have an afternoon calendar, I watched the 10am session online. I’ve written before about the value of watching other cases  on the calendar when you have court. It’s a good way to get oriented if you’ve never been to the court before or to take the temperature of things even if you have. You can do that virtually at the Supreme Court before you leave your office.

Today, I opened a window on my computer and watched some oral arguments from today’s sessions. There’s a link on the Supreme Court’s homepage, and this one may work, too. The Court also keeps an archive of the current term’s arguments online. Don’t have time or a way to read the briefs that go with the argument? The Court has this covered with well-written summaries. Want to find out how it all turned out? The opinions are also available online.

Lawyers 100 years ago or even 10 years ago couldn’t have imagined that such a resource as this would be around and would have loved to have something like this. All of the better lawyers I know read the Opinions Weekly from the Fulton Daily Report or some form of advance sheets. It’s a good practice but a monotonous one as you search for the criminal cases of significance (most aren’t particularly significant in the criminal realm). A practice of regularly watching argument at the Supreme Court is similarly worthwhile

Looking for a good way to figure out which cases are most worth watching? Cases where the Court has granted cert. to review a Court of Appeals case or where the Court has granted a habeas petitioner’s Application for Certificate of Probable Cause to Appeal tend to be more exciting. Look for a (G) in the case number for cert. cases or an (H) for habeas cases. The website is a good place for non-lawyers to learn how the Court decides cases, for lawyers to keep up with developments in the law, and for lawyers to prepare for oral argument (by seeing what to do and what not to do). Murder appeals and family law appeals tend not to draw questions from the justices.