I am told that bankruptcy appeals have been going 56% to the district court and 46% to the BAP.  Judge Jury thinks that one reason for that might be that the BAP is perceived to be more casual about granting extensions of time to file briefs than the district court.  I doubt that myself.  She also commented to me that district court rulings are appealed to the 9th Circuit more than BAP rulings.

My own guess re why the district court is higher is that non-bankruptcy lawyers think that the BAP will “hometown” them or “rubber-stamp” the ruling of their buddy.  But I have also heard people say that district court judges rubber-stamp the bankruptcy court since they don’t know anything about bankruptcy anyway.  Both of those views are silly.  I suppose that there is the lazy judge here or there that rubber-stamps stuff but my perception is that judges try to get it right.

Judge Laura Taylor made a great comment at a program I attended – that if the party is pretty sure that the case is going to go to the 9th Circuit no matter what, the appeal should go to the BAP.  She said, rightly so, that the BAP will understand the issue a little better and will “set it up” for the 9th Circuit.  “We will see where this is going and try to explain that to the 9th Circuit for the parties.” Good point.