Alaska Court System Supreme Court & Court of Appeals

Forms

Publications

• Oral Argument in the Alaska Supreme Court

Arguments are broadcast for viewing. Spectators and media are asked to attend by viewing the televised live feed. Please contact the Appellate Clerk's Office if you have questions.

Anchorage arguments are held in the Supreme Court courtroom, fifth floor, Boney Courthouse, 303 K Street.

Fairbanks arguments are held in Courtroom 502, fifth floor, Rabinowitz Courthouse, 101 Lacey Street.

Juneau arguments are held in Courtroom A, first floor, Dimond Courthouse, 123 4th Street.

Alaska Supreme Court oral arguments are streamed live on the internet and broadcast on Gavel Alaska on cable systems throughout the state. Contact your local cable provider for channel information. For a broadcast schedule, to view oral arguments live as they occur, or to view archived videos of oral arguments before the Alaska Supreme Court, visit the Gavel Alaska website or contact them at 1-800-870-5866.

Alaska Court of Appeals oral arguments are streamed live and are not archived for viewing later. Visit Court of Appeals oral arguments live stream.

For more information, see the pamphlet SCP-1 Oral Argument in the Alaska Supreme Court.

• Supreme Court Oral Argument Calendar
• Court of Appeals Oral Argument Calendar

Slip opinions are issued Fridays after 9:00 a.m. and are retained on the court's website until they are published in the official reporter of Alaska appellate decisions - Pacific Reporter (P.2d and P.3d), and the Alaska Reporter, which contains the Alaska cases excerpted from P.2d and P.3d. The Pacific Reporter or the Alaska Reporter is available at most Alaska Court System law libraries and some public libraries.

MOJs are issued Wednesday mornings, and posted on the court's website for informational purposes. MOJs are without precedential effect and may not be cited in the courts of the State of Alaska (Appellate Rule 214). They are retained on court's website for three months. Older MOJs may be obtained from the Appellate Clerk's Office (907) 264-0612.

Court of Appeals Summary Dispositions are issued Wednesday mornings, and posted on the court's website for informational purposes. Summary Dispositions are without precedential effect and may not be cited in the courts of the State of Alaska (Appellate Rule 214). They are retained on court's website for three months. Older Summary Dispositions may be obtained from the Appellate Clerk's Office (907) 264-0612.

Case-Related Orders issued by the Supreme Court are posted to the court's website on the day they are released, and are retained until they are published in the official reporter of Alaska appellate decisions - Pacific Reporter (P.2d and P.3d), and the Alaska Reporter, which contains the Alaska cases excerpted from P.2d and P.3d. The Pacific Reporter or the Alaska Reporter is available at most Alaska Court System law libraries and some public libraries.

All opinions and some MOJs back to 1960 are available in the law library's Alaska Case Law Service.

Slip Opinions and Memorandum Opinions

Please report errors found in opinions, MOJs, and summary dispositions to:

Clerk of the Appellate Courts
303 K Street
Anchorage, Alaska 99501
phone: 907-264-0608
fax: 907-264-0878
email: corrections@akcourts.gov

The appellate clerk's office offers an appellate slip opinion notification service.

The appellate clerk's office offers an appellate slip opinion notification service: the ak-slip-opinions listserv.

Each week subscribers receive a message providing a list of the opinions and MOJs issued by the supreme court and court of appeals that week. The message includes the case type and a link to the PDF version of the document posted on the court's website.

Any interested person may sign up for this free service. To subscribe, or to unsubscribe, go to http://list.state.ak.us/mailman/listinfo/ak-slip-opinions

To retrieve previously published messages from archives, go to http://list.state.ak.us/pipermail/ak-slip-opinions/.

• State of the Judiciary Addresses
• Filing Fees
• Matters Under Advisement
• Prohibited Items List - Items that will not be allowed in court buildings.

Under Alaska law, a pay check may not be issued to a judicial officer until the judicial officer has filed an affidavit affirming that no matter referred to the judicial officer has been uncompleted or undecided for more than six months. This provision is known as "the six-month rule."

For the Alaska Supreme Court, the six-month rule starts to run when the case is taken under advisement by the five members of the court. In order to be under advisement, the case must be ready to be decided by the court. Normally, the date the case is taken under advisement is the date of oral argument or the court's conference on the case if no oral argument is requested, although on occasion that date may be different in the event of requested supplemental briefing, reassignment to another justice, or other events that affect the date when the case is ready to be decided by the court. Once the case has been assigned to an individual justice to write the opinion, or in the words of the statute, has been "referred to the justice for opinion” (which cannot happen until the court has discussed the case after oral argument and knows which justices are in the majority), that justice has six months to complete the draft opinion and circulate it for voting by the rest of the court. This is the portion of the opinion that is within the control of the individual justice. Draft opinions are usually issued much more quickly than six months, in most cases within 90 days of the case being taken under advisement. Once all voting is complete by all individual justices, all voting suggestions have been incorporated during the reconciliation process, and any separate opinions have been prepared and voted upon, the draft is ready to be proofread and prepared for publication. About 75% of all Supreme Court appeals are published within nine months from the date they were taken under advisement.