I saw a proposed rule change allowing citation to unreported decisions by the Superior Court. It appears far too many decisions of the Superior Court are memorandum and not reported, why is that?
You are right in your observation that it appears at times far too many decisions of the Superior Court are not reportable decisions, but only memorandum. That wasn’t always the case. Lawyers who argued regularly in the Pennsylvania Superior Court in the 1970s and 1980s and even up through the early ’90s would normally get an opinion published, particularly on serious cases. One of the biggest frustrations for at least many criminal practitioners is to argue very serious cases before the Superior Court, particularly when there are life imprisonment or extremely long jail sentences, and get a memorandum opinion that does not appear always to address the issues adequately or reflect what was said after oral argument.
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