Krauser, CSA’s chief judge, seeks efficiency as retirement nears

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Maryland Court of Special Appeals Chief Judge Peter B. Krauser said his mission has been to make the state’s intermediate appellate court run more efficiently, responsively and productively.

Toward that end, Krauser has recently made structural changes in the court’s administration, including the addition of 12 staff attorneys.

The court has also created the position of “clerk of the court/court administrator,” who reports to the chief judge and oversees the chief deputy clerk, the director of the alternative dispute resolution division and the chief staff attorney. In addition, each judge has among his or her three clerks a senior clerk, who has at least two years of practical legal experience, Krauser said.

His belief in the new system’s ability to help the court deal with its caseload stands in stark contrast to the “overwhelmed” appellate court Krauser described to the General Assembly two years ago in urging the legislators to approve two additional judges for the Court of Special Appeals. The legislature concurred with Krauser in the 2013 session and increased the appellate court from 13 to 15 judges.

Krauser has also defended his court’s issuance of unreported opinions, which cannot be cited in any case other than the one that resulted in the opinion.

These opinions, which apply only to the “law of the case,” enable the judges to provide a full written review of the specific case without concern that it will be cited elsewhere, Krauser said.

The Court of Special Appeals, which must accept all properly filed appeals, issues hundreds of opinions annually.

If all opinions had to be “reported,” or citable, the judges would have to resort to “summary opinions” to get through their workloads, Krauser added, referring to opinions that state only whether a lower decision is affirmed or vacated, without further explanation.

The Maryland Constitution will force Krauser, 68, to step down from the court on May 5, 2017, when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70. Krauser, who has served on the appeals court since January 2000, was elevated to chief by then-Gov. Martin O’Malley in December 2007.

Though retirement is approaching, the Philadelphia native said he has not given much thought to hanging up his robe, noting he still has about 18 months left on the bench before the state Constitution kicks him off.

What follows is a condensed version of an interview conducted with Krauser in the Court of Special Appeals’ conference room earlier this month.

Why did you make structural changes in the Court of Special Appeals’ administration?

We always face an increasing workload and, frankly, inadequate staffing at times, and the demands on the Court of Special Appeals grow annually and to meet those demands we’ve had to do a lot of reshaping of the administration of the court, re-staffing and adding additional staff.

What changes have you made?

We’ve gone from eight-and-a-half staff attorneys to over 20 to meet the increased workload… The staff attorneys work in various capacities. We now have two staff attorneys who are assigned to the clerk’s office that handle all motions  It is one of the reasons that we are able to respond to motions much quicker than we have in the past….We hope that promotes the efficiency of the court and its responsiveness. We also now have four staff attorneys who focus principally on post-conviction matters and we have four attorneys who devote their time exclusively to mediation. The rest of the attorneys work on primarily what we call SOBs, or submitted on briefs appeals. They work with the judges to assist them in research and developing the court’s response….

Each judge now has what we call a senior law clerk which is in fact a permanent law clerk. This is to prevent the annual disruption of each judge’s chambers in having to bring on an entirely new collection of law clerks. Here at least we have one senior law clerk that promotes continuity in chambers and also obviously renders each judge’s chambers more efficient.

You mentioned mediation. The Court of Special Appeals is mediating between 15 percent and 18 percent of civil cases on appeal and has a 70 percent settlement rate, according to Maryland Judiciary data. What does this mean for the court?

This not only cuts down on each judge’s workload but for the litigants it means that their cases will not be passing back and forth and forever in a state of flux….It has exceeded all expectations and predictions.

I understand the court is updating its published guide for self-representation. What is the update?

This one will have a separate section on post-conviction remedies, specifically applications for leave to appeal. We hope that by making this guide available [we will help] the self-represented and lawyers as well who also make the mistake of noting an appeal when they should be filing an application [for leave to appeal]. We end up having to dismiss the appeal if it should have been [preceded by] an application to appeal. It [the update] is a step we hope will improve the situation.

Why does the court often issue unreported opinions, which cannot be cited because they have no precedential or persuasive value other than in the specific case? Why not simply issue reported opinions?

We issue full opinions in all cases, reported and unreported. This is unusual…. The problem is once you are able to cite unreported opinions, in order to maintain a coherent, consistent body of law we would have to resort to summary opinions, which would be unfortunate. But there is no way that we can do 100 opinions a month, there is no way to obtain that goal, if they have to be fully written as opposed to summary opinion…. It is impossible for us to maintain the kind of control to ensure the goal of a coherent, consistent body of law if you can cite any unreported opinion.

Do you have a closing argument?

I hope I’ve made some contribution to rendering the court more responsive, more efficient and more productive.

Peter B. Krauser

Age: 68

Education: Bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University, law degree from University of Pennsylvania School of Law.

Background: Law clerk to U.S. District Judge John P. Fullam of Eastern Pennsylvania; appellate attorney, criminal division, U.S. Department of Justice; partner, Margolius, Davis, Finkelstein & Rider; Pohorytes & Greenstein; Thompson, Hine & Flory; managing partner, Krauser & Taub; Judge, Maryland Court of Special Appeals.

Current position: Chief judge, Maryland Court of Special Appeals (since December 2007)

Personal:  Krauser lives in Prince George’s County with his wife, Sherrie. They have two adult children and three grandchildren.