Last time, we began reviewing in five year increments the counties which produced the civil cases from the Second District which the Supreme Court decided between 1990 and 2004.

In 2005, the Court decided two cases from Lake county and one each from Du Page, McHenry, Ogle and Kane.  In 2006, the Court decided three cases each from Lake and McHenry counties and one from Du Page, Winnebago, Kane and Kendall.  The following year, the Court decided one civil case each from Lake, Du Page, Winnebago and Lee counties.  In 2008, the Court decided four cases from Lake and Du Page counties and one from Kane county.  In 2009, the Court decided five civil cases from Du Page county, two from Lake and one from Winnebago county.

In 2010, the Court decided only two civil cases from the Second District, both originating in Kane county.  In 2011, the Court decided four cases each from Lake and Du Page counties and one from Winnebago.  The following year, the Court decided three cases from Du Page county and one each from Lake and Kane.  In 2013, the Court decided two cases from Du Page county and one each from Lake, McHenry, Kane and Stephenson counties.  In 2014, the Court decided two cases from Lake county and one from Kane and Kendall counties.

In 2015, the Court decided three civil cases from Lake county and one apiece from Du Page, McHenry, Winnebago and Stephenson counties.  In 2016, the Court decided only one civil case from the Second District, which was originated in Winnebago county.  The following year, the Court decided three civil cases from Lake county and one from Kane county.  In 2018, the Court decided one case each from Du Page and Winnebago counties.  So far in 2019, the Court has decided one case from Lake county and one from Kane.

Across the entire period of 1990-2019, Du Page county has produced the most Second District civil cases at 76, followed by Lake (55), Kane (22) and McHenry and Winnebago (14 each).  Of course, we have no reason to believe that civil cases decided by the Supreme Court should necessarily track each county’s share of population year by year, since leave to appeal is based on the issue presented.  However, would each county’s share roughly track population over the course of thirty years?  Let’s compare each county’s share of the total population of the Second District according to the 2010 census to the same county’s share of the Second District’s total number of civil cases.

Both Du Page and Lake counties are “overrepresented” in the civil caseload.  Du Page accounts for 38% of the cases but only 28.75% of the population, while Lake makes up 27.5% of the cases and 22.06% of the population.  Kane is underrepresented – 11% of the cases, 16.16% of the population.  McHenry and Winnebago counties are slightly underrepresented too – both counties have 7% of the cases, but more than 9% of the population (McHenry 9.68% and Winnebago 9.26%).  Kendall and De Kalb were a bit underrepresented (Kendall 2% of cases and 3.6% of population, De Kalb 1% of cases and 3.3% of population).  Of the remaining counties, Ogle and Lee counties are slightly overrepresented in the cases and Boone county was slightly underrepresented.  Stephenson county accounted for 1.5% of the cases and 1.5% of the total population.  Since 1990, the Court has decided no civil cases at all originating in Jo Daviess or Carroll counties.

Join us back here next week as we look at the Second District’s criminal cases.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Gary Todd (no changes).