Court Opinion

ID: 9477907
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:34:36.15242+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:46:07.328864
License: Public Domain

HARLINGTON WOOD, Jr., Circuit Judge,
concurring.
Although I fully join in affirming this case I am hesitant about suggesting that it is preferable for district judges to decide cases with written findings of fact and conclusions of law. If the district judge who has just finished hearing the evidence and the arguments has the talent by referring to his own trial notes to resolve the case then and there for the parties, I would applaud. I think even the loser would be glad to promptly know where the case stands. How district judges, with a more difficult task than we have here, should handle this type of thing in their own courts I would leave to them. Trial judges can determine for themselves soon enough in their judicial careers whether they have the personal ability to handle it that way or not. Written findings of fact and conclusions of law are no panacea. We regularly have problems with those as well, but that is the nature of this work. Oral findings may not always be as thorough as written findings which are often based on a draft submitted by the prevailing party, but they will be fresh and more balanced, and ordinarily adequate, as in this present case.