The Civil Justice Association of California is the only organization in the country that systematically reviews every appellate case filed in the California Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal.
With approximately 15,000 appeals filed annually, this initially requires screening 1,200 briefs a month. On the average, 8% of these involve liability and civil procedure issues of interest to the Association. A third of these are of sufficient importance to be brought before the Association's Appellate Committee.
Briefs filed by the Civil Justice Association of California have helped produce important decisions with significant cost savings to businesses of all sizes in a broad variety of areas.
- product liability
- employment law
- premises liability
- unfair competition law
- evidence and junk science
- medical liability
- arbitration
- summary judgment
- joint and several liability
- punitive damages
- construction litigation
In addition to filing amicus briefs, the Association regularly files letter briefs requesting that the courts grant or deny hearings or publish or de-publish opinions.
The Appellate Program is supervised by a 15-member Appellate Committee. The committee meets monthly to determine which cases merit CJAC's participation as an amicus curiae.
Fred J. Hiestand, CJAC General Counsel, manages the Appellate Program. Mr. Hiestand has more than 25 years of appellate experience. He participates in oral arguments before the state Supreme Court in cases where CJAC has filed an amicus brief and is consulted by appellate attorneys preparing cases for argument. A graduate of the University of California's Boalt Hall School of law, Mr. Hiestand has served as counsel to the California Legislature's Joint Committee on Tort Liability, the Assembly's Select Committee on Medical Malpractice, and to former California Governor Jerry Brown on medical liability.
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