Joel M. Schumm
Clinical Professor of Law, IU McKinney School of Law

Indiana’s appellate courts confronted a variety of significant issues during the survey period October 1, 2016, to September 30, 2017. Justice Rucker’s nearly two decades of service on the Indiana Supreme Court concluded in May, and Justice Goff took the bench in July. With that appointment, the court has been transformed from the five justices who served together from 1999-2010 (Shepard, Dickson, Sullivan, Boehm, and Rucker), to five justices with an average of less than four years of experience (Rush, David, Massa, Slaughter, and Goff). As explored below, the new court has increasingly used per curiam opinions and otherwise generally resolved cases on narrow grounds.

This Article focuses on opinions from the Indiana Supreme Court and many of the significant opinions from the Indiana Court of Appeals, on a wide range of issues that affect cases from their beginning to end. [Read entire article here]