Hurry up please, it's time

Yes, it's that time again . . . you were thinking "fall back" to Standard Time on Sunday, right? No, it's "distress time" in the Georgia Court of Appeals.

Under the Georgia Constitution, all appeals have to be decided within two terms of docketing (there are three court terms per year). So, a Georgia attorney always knows the outside date for an appellate decision by checking the end of the second court term. The Court of Appeals even posts the date on its website. 

Another thing to remember is that most cases in the Court of Appeals are not decided during the first term after docketing, because the court is under pressure to decide the second-term cases.

The current Court of Appeals term expires November 3. All remaining August term cases have to be decided by then. It's not a time to invite a Georgia appellate judge to address your local civic club!

The Supreme Court of Georgia is under the same constitutional requirement. A small batch of cases are due to be released on November 2, outside of the Court's normal schedule.