COURT JURISDICTION

"The court's work begins when an appeal is docketed by the Clerk of the Court, and is assigned a docket number. The parties to the cases then prepare and file written briefs setting forth their arguments. Parties also may submit materials such as transcripts of testimony and other relevant parts of the record made in the lower tribunal from which the appeal originated. Once all the briefs have been received, the case may be scheduled for oral argument before the court. Each side usually is allotted between 15 and 30 minutes for argument, depending on the nature of the case. During oral argument, the lawyers for the parties present their arguments and answer questions of the judges concerning the issues presented. If the court determines that oral argument is unnecessary, the case is decided by a panel of judges based on the arguments presented in the briefs. In each appeal, the presiding judge of the panel assigns a member of the panel to prepare the court's opinion. The opinion sets out the decision of the court and the reasons for the decision. If the panel determines that its decision will add significantly to a body of law, it issues a precedential opinion. Decisions that do not add significantly to the body of law are issued as nonprecedential. All opinions are made available to the public, and may be obtained from the court's home page on the Internet, the Federal Reporter 3rd Series, Westlaw® and Lexis®."

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