Last time, we were reviewing the Court’s treatment of cases with a dissent at the Appellate Court.  This week, we’re reviewing the data on lag times at the Court.

In 2014, a joint project of the Court Management Committee of the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators, in conjunction with the Conference of Chief Judges of the State Courts of Appeal, the National Conference of Appellate Court Clerks and the American Bar Association, developed a schedule of model lag time goals for each stage in an appeal.  After reviewing survey data from courts around the country, comparing their performance to the time standards set by the ABA, among others, the project suggested a new lag time goal: the project concluded that state courts of last resort should attempt to process seventy-five percent of their cases in one-hundred eighty days from grant of review to decision, and ninety-five percent in two hundred forty days from grant to decision.  So how is the Illinois Supreme Court doing?

Computing lag time data before 2007 is challenging because conference results are not posted on the Court’s website (meaning that it’s impossible to determine the date on which leave to appeal was granted).  In 2005, the Court averaged 166.2 days from argument to decision.  In 2006, the Court averaged 133.63 days from argument to decision.

Beginning in 2007, we can compare both the days from the grant of review to argument, and the days from argument to decision.  For the past eleven years, the Court has fallen short of the joint project’s lag time goals.  In 2007, civil cases averaged 162.89 days from grant to argument and a further 128.9 days from argument to decision.  In 2008, the Court averaged 178.77 days from grant to argument and 154.38 days from argument to decision.  In 2009, civil cases averaged 187 days from grant of leave to appeal to argument, and a further 139.8 days from argument to decision.  In 2010, civil cases averaged 195 days from grant to argument and 150 days from argument to decision.  In 2011, the numbers were quite similar: 190 days from grant to argument, 143.14 days from argument to decision.  In 2012, civil cases averaged 201.29 days from the grant of leave to appeal to argument and a further 152.18 days from argument to decision.  In 2013, the Court averaged 186.28 days from grant to argument, and 137.59 days from argument to decision.  In 2014, civil cases averaged 198.15 days from grant to argument, and 124.93 days from argument to decision.

In 2015, civil cases averaged 199.02 days from grant of leave to appeal to argument, and a further 117.81 days from argument to decision.  In 2016, civil cases averaged 176.86 days from grant to argument, and 155.19 days from argument to decision.  Last year, the Court’s civil cases averaged 201.76 days from grant of review to argument, and a further 113.38 days from argument to decision.

Join us back here later today as we review the data for the Court’s criminal docket.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Pen Waggener (no changes).