Last week, we began our examination of the Illinois Supreme Court’s lag time on civil cases in unanimous and non-unanimous cases. This week, we turn to the Court’s criminal, quasi-criminal, juvenile and disciplinary cases.
Interestingly, criminal cases are under submission for less time, on average, for nearly every year since 2000 than the comparable numbers for civil cases. In 2008, the average criminal case was under submission for 111.37 days. The following year, the criminal average rose to 144.7 days. The average time under submission dipped slightly in 2010 before rising to 146.82 in 2011. In 2012, the average time under submission dropped to 125.63 days. The figure increased by about ten percent in 2013 before dropping all the way to 100.41 days in 2014. In 2015, the average days under submission for criminal cases was 127.88 days.
We report the data in Table 246 disaggregated between unanimous and non-unanimous decisions. Throughout the period, days under submission for non-unanimous cases were substantially higher than the average for unanimous decisions. In 2008, non-unanimous criminal decisions were pending for an average of 142 days. That same year, unanimous decisions were under submission for 107.96 days. The following year, the average time under submission for non-unanimous cases increased by nearly 100 days, to 247.1 days, while unanimous decisions required only slightly longer than the previous year – 117.03 days. In 2010, the average days under submission for non-unanimous decisions were down significantly to 215.42 days, but the average for unanimous cases was almost the same – 115.13 days. The following year, the average for non-unanimous cases was back up to 257 days, while the average for unanimous decisions was almost exactly the same, at 115.34 days. In 2012, the average days under submission for non-unanimous cases were down 29% to 184.5 days, while days under submission for unanimous cases dropped below 100 days for the first time, to 98.86 days. Average days under submission were about the same for non-unanimous criminal cases in 2013, while the average for unanimous decisions was up 12%, to 111.28 days. The average for both non-unanimous and unanimous decisions stayed roughly the same in 2013. The average days under submission for unanimous cases dropped 42% in 2014, while non-unanimous decisions remained relatively static for yet another year. Last year, days under submission was going in opposite directions – the average days for non-unanimous decisions were down 15%, to 159.67 days, while the average for unanimous decisions was up 54%, to 120.54 days.
Join us back here tomorrow as we review the year-by-year time-under-submission data for the Illinois Supreme Court’s criminal cases.