Jones v. Miller

The citizens of Arkansas have reserved through our constitution the right to appeal a circuit-court decision. It is the best—perhaps the only-way to ensure that when a citizen goes to court in Miller County, he or she gets roughly the same justice that a litigant receives in Greene County. I am therefore troubled when appellate courts of this state employ procedural bars to escape from having to consider a citizen’s appeal on the merits.

This court took this case on review because the court of appeals, as part of a disturbing trend, employed yet another procedural bar to avoid deciding this…