Why Do Appeals Take So Long? Understanding Delay in the Washington Court of Appeals
One of the most common—and most difficult—questions clients ask during an appeal is: Why is this taking so long?
An appeal can take a surprisingly long time to reach oral argument. And even after the lawyers have argued the case, months can pass before the Court of Appeals issues its decision. That silence can be frustrating, and it can be tempting to assume that the delay means something about the outcome. Perhaps the judges are struggling with the case. Perhaps they are divided. Perhaps they are preparing to reverse the trial court.
Sometimes there may be something to those possibilities. But generally, the amount of time an appellate court takes to decide a case does not provide a reliable indication of who will win. There are many reasons an appeal can take time, and most have little to do with whether the court ultimately affirms or reverses the trial court.
The short answer is that delay is common and usually says little about the likely result. Understanding what happens before and after oral argument can make the wait less mysterious.
The Trek from Filing to Oral Argument
The appellate process involves assembling the record, preparing the briefing, allowing the opposing party to respond, and giving the appellant an opportunity to reply. Washington’s Rules of Appellate Procedure establish deadlines for these steps, but those deadlines do not necessarily mean that an appeal will move from one stage to the next without interruption. Extensions, motions, record problems, supplemental briefing, and other procedural matters can add time to the process.
The record itself can be substantial. In a complicated business dispute, for example, there may be thousands of pages of trial-court filings, exhibits, transcripts, and other materials. Briefing can take considerable time as well. Under Washington’s current rules, an appellant’s opening brief generally is due within 60 days after the report of proceedings is filed, or within 45 days after the designation of clerk’s papers and exhibits if the record does not include a report of proceedings. A civil respondent generally has 30 days to respond, followed by 30 days for a reply. Those deadlines alone can consume several months, even before the court schedules oral argument.
Not every appeal includes oral argument. After briefing is complete, the court decides whether oral argument would assist its review. If an appeal has not been scheduled for argument, the case may still be moving normally through the appellate process—or the court may ultimately decide it on the briefs.
The Weeks (or Months) Until the Court Issues an Opinion
This is where appellate waiting can become particularly perplexing. The lawyers have argued the case. The judges have asked their questions. Everyone leaves the courtroom. And then…nothing.
That silence is normal. Oral argument is only one part of the court’s decision-making process. Afterward, the judges continue reviewing the briefs, the record, counsel’s arguments, and the applicable law. The panel must agree on a result, determine the reasoning that supports it, and prepare a written opinion or other disposition. Each step takes time.
Each case presents its own challenges. In one appeal, the legal issue may be straightforward, but the record complicated; in another, the record may be relatively simple, but the legal question novel. The judges may agree on the result yet differ about the reasoning. And many cases require careful consideration of how the decision may affect future disputes.
The resulting opinion may be only a few pages long, but that does not mean the decision was simple.
Appellate judges are not simply deciding whether they agree with the trial judge. They are applying standards of review, interpreting statutes and prior decisions, evaluating the arguments presented by the parties, and determining what legal rule should govern the case.
A Court of Appeals panel consists of three judges, and disagreement between those judges is a feature, not a bug. When that happens, additional time may be required for judges to exchange drafts, respond to one another’s reasoning, and determine the final form of the court’s decision.
If the judges do not agree on the outcome or the reasoning, one or more of the judges may write separately. A concurrence agrees with the outcome but for different reasons, while a dissent disagrees with the outcome.
What Does the Delay Mean for the Outcome?
Whether the wait is long or short, the time between oral argument and the issuance of an opinion almost never reveals how the court will rule. A delay may reflect judicial disagreement, but it may just as easily result from workload, scheduling, the complexity of the record, or other circumstances affecting the judicial panel.
The Washington courts’ own statistics show that appellate decision times fluctuate from year to year. For civil appeals in Division I, the 75th-percentile time from a case becoming “ready” (i.e. the conclusion of the briefing) for decision to issuance of an opinion was 212 days in 2024. In 2025, that figure increased to 265 days. In other words, in 2025, one-quarter of Division I civil appeals that reached an opinion took more than approximately nine months from the “ready” point to the opinion.
The court’s statistics also show that, in 2025, the 75th-percentile interval from filing of a Division 1 civil appeal to the issuance of an opinion was 558 days. That figure is not a prediction for any particular appeal. It does, however, offer useful perspective to litigants who feel that their appeal has been pending for an unusually long time.
An appeal can feel like it has disappeared into a black hole when, from the court’s perspective, it may simply be one of many cases moving through a substantial docket.
It is tempting to reason that a long-delayed opinion must mean the judges are wrestling with the case and therefore may be considering reversal. But the opposite intuition is equally plausible: perhaps the court is carefully working toward an affirmance and simply wants to explain its reasoning.
If three months pass, then four, then five, it is natural to start wondering whether something unusual is happening. It may be. But “something unusual” does not necessarily mean anything about the outcome. The safest interpretation of a lengthy post-argument wait is therefore the least satisfying one: We do not know what it means.
Waiting for an appellate decision can be one of the most frustrating parts of litigation. The case has already been tried (and that undoubtedly took a very long time). The briefs have been filed. The lawyers have argued. There is nothing left for the parties to do but wait.
Eventually, the court will issue a decision, ending the uncertainty even if the result is not the one hoped for. The experienced and talented appellate attorneys at Beresford Booth can help you navigate the appellate process and improve the chances of a successful result. Contact us at info@beresfordlaw.com or call (425) 776-4100 to see how we can help.