A few weeks ago, we reviewed the three-year floating average reversal rates for each of the Districts and Divisions of the Appellate Court.  But of course, mere reversal rates don’t tell the whole story.  There’s a big difference between a court getting affirmed (or reversed) 4-3 and a 7-0 decision.  So this time, we’re looking at the average votes to affirm the Appellate Court – if the lower court decision is affirmed, we’re using the votes for the majority position; if the decision is reversed, we use the votes in dissent.  We begin with Division One of the First District.

We report the data for the years 1990-1999 in Table 1381 below.  In 1990 and from 1997 to 1999, the court was faring pretty well – 5.33 votes to affirm in 1990, 7 in 1997, 4.43 in 1998 and 5.5 in 1999.  The average fell to 3.5 in 1992, 1994 and 1997.  In 1991, the court averaged only 0.33 votes to affirm and in 1995, the court’s decisions were unanimously reversed – average votes to affirm, zero.

The court had fewer upswings during the years 2000 to 2009.  The average votes to affirm was in majority territory from 2005 to 2008: 4.33 in 2005, 4 in 2006 and 6 in 2007 and 2008, but it was only 3.6 in 2002 and 3.8 in 2003.  In 2009, votes to affirm was 2.33.  In 2004, it fell to 1.75, and in 2000, it was only 1.33.

In 2010, average votes to affirm was 4.5.  It rose to 7 in 2015 and was 5.33 in 2018, but otherwise, it’s been in minority territory throughout the past ten years – 1 (2011), 0 (2012) 2 (2013), 0 (2014), 3.5 (2016), 2 (2017) and 1.6 (2019).

Join us here next time as we review the data for Division 2 of the First District.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Ken Lund (no changes).