Last week, we further refined our measure of how the decisions of the various Districts and Divisions of the Appellate Court have fared before the Supreme Court by calculating the average votes to affirm in civil cases between 2000 and 2004.  Today, we begin our look at the second five years of our study period – 2005 to 2009.

Between 2005 and 2009, we saw that average votes to affirm were highest in non-unanimous decisions among direct appeals from the Circuit Court.  For our second five years, that’s not the case at all.  Districts Four and Five of Division One led with an average of five votes to affirm. Division One of the First District was next among non-unanimous decisions with 4.83 votes to affirm.  The Third District is next, averaging 3.75 votes to affirm in non-unanimous decisions.  Division Six of the First District averaged 3.67 votes to affirm in non-unanimous cases, while the Second District averaged 3.5.  The Fourth District came in at 3.38 votes to affirm.  Division Two of the First District averaged 2.67 votes to affirm in non-unanimous civil decisions.  Direct appeals were near the bottom, averaging only 2.5 votes to affirm.  The Fifth District averaged 1.86 votes to affirm, and Division Three of the First District was dead last, with an average of 1.5 votes to affirm.

Decisions from the Industrial Commission panel of the First District led among unanimous decisions from the Supreme Court, averaging five votes to affirm.  Division One of the First District was next, averaging 3.88 votes to affirm.  The Third District averaged 3.72 votes to affirm, and Division Six of the First District was just slightly behind at 3.69 votes to affirm.  The Fourth District averaged 3.43 votes to affirm, and the Second District was only slightly behind at an average of 3.41 votes.  Divisions Three, Four and Two of the First District were next, averaging 2.79, 2.5 and 2.36 votes to affirm, respectively.  Direct appeals were third from the bottom, averaging 1.67 votes to affirm, and Division Five of the First District averaged only one vote to affirm.  The Fifth District had a rough time between 2005 and 2009 in civil cases, averaging only 0.95 votes to affirm in cases decided unanimously.

Join us back here tomorrow as we determine which Districts had the highest fraction of their civil decisions reversed unanimously during this second five years.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Andrew E. Larsen (no changes).