Abstract
The role played by lawyers in setting appellate court agenda as part of an interactional policy process unique to judicial policy-making is a neglected research area among students of the judicial process. The research reported here is an explanatory first step in ascertaining those factors which affect lawyers' decisions to appeal cases beyond the Federal District Court to the U.S Court of Appeals and to the U.S. Supreme Court. The data are gleaned from responses to a questionnaire sent to a sample of lawyers who had practiced before the U.S. Court of Appeals during 1972. The results suggest a considerable degree of consensus among these lawyers as to the relative importance of various factors in the appellate choice, yet significant differences do emerge among these lawyers by virtue of legal value perspectives which are of importance to the agenda-setting task.
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