Bringing More Finality to Finality: Conditional Consent Judgments and Appellate Review

Authors

Thomas A. Engelhardt

Document Type

Note

Abstract

(Excerpt)

Part I provides background on finality, including an overview of the final judgment rule and other statutory grants of appellate jurisdiction. Part I then discusses consent judgments, including conditional consent judgments. Part II examines the circuit splits with respect to issues of finality and the appealability of consent judgments that reserve a right to appeal. Part III presents arguments for and against strict interpretation and application of the finality requirement regarding consent judgments. Part IV argues for resolving the controversy by adopting a standard by which appellate courts uniformly recognize a consent judgment’s reservation of a right to appeal certain adverse rulings. This Note concludes by explaining how this standard achieves the goals of the federal judicial system, such as judicial economy and fairness to parties.