Practicing in the Appellate Courts is for the purpose of reviewing trial court judgments to correct of errors committed by the trial court, development of the law, achieve a uniform approach across courts, and the pursuit of justice, more generally. Appellate courts are not a forum to make a new case, but instead they determine if the rulings and judgment of the court below were made correctly.
Clayton is a town in Union County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 2,524 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Union County. Tourists heading from Texas to Colorado often pass through Clayton, which is located in the northeast corner of New Mexico. Clayton is named for a son of U.S. Senator Stephen W. Dorsey, an Arkansas Republican, originally from Ohio, who served during Reconstruction. The town was established in 1887. Trade caravans and homesteaders traveling through the Cimarron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail passed through Clayton. The town was a livestock shipping center for herds from the Pecos River and the Texas Panhandle.