Friday, June 22, 2012

Indiana Law Blog Asks "How Important are Oral Arguments?" Citing References to Oral Argument in Tax Decisions

By Marcia Oddi in the Indiana Law Blog:

Yesterday's Supreme Court decision in Indiana Department of Revenue v. United Parcel Service, Inc. twice cited statements from the oral argument. Here from the top of p. 4:
As UPS declared at oral argument, it ultimately desired to bear its own risks for worker’s compensation and package damage losses. Oral Arg. Video Tr. at 26:02-26:40. And UPS accomplished this end through the reinsurance arrangement with its Affiliates. Oral Arg. Video Tr. at 26:02-26:40.
A search of Court's website reveals no other citations to "Oral Arg. Video Tr." and only a few citations to "Oral Arg. Tr." It turns out these are all from 1998-2000 Tax Court decisions. A Lexis search turned up the same cases, plus a half-dozen Tax Court opinions from 2005 with citations to the "Oral Arg. Tr."

Apparently, the Tax Court keeps a transcript of its oral arguments. In addition, recently the Tax Court has begun to videocast at least some of its oral arguments, which are then archived.
...

See the full entry here:

http://indianalawblog.com/archives/2012/06/ind_courts_so_h.html