This week, we’re returning to perhaps the most often-written-about statistics in judicial analytics: reversal rates. First up, the Divisions of Chicago’s First District of the Appellate Court in civil cases.
The overall numbers for Divisions One through Six are reported in Table 1695. All six Divisions are relatively close. The highest reversal rate 1990-2020 was Division 2 at 61.18%. Division Three’s civil decisions have been reversed 59.09% of the time. Division Six’s reversal rate is 57.83%. Division Five’s is 56.94%. Division One is at 55.17%. Division Four fared the best at 51.65%.
In the past thirty-one years, the most active Division was Three. The Court has reviewed 110 civil cases from that Division. Division Four is next at 91 cases. Division One has had 87 cases reviewed, Division Two has had 85 and Division Six has had 83 reviewed. Division Five is the most lightly reviewed court in civil cases – 72 decisions reviewed, 1990-2020.
Between 1990 and 1999, Division Five had the highest reversal rate – 60.87%. Division Three had a reversal rate of 60.78%. Sixty percent of Division Six’s cases were reversed. Division Two was at 57.57%, Division One was at 51.72% and only 51.28% of Division Four’s cases were reversed.
Between 2000 and 2009, Division Four fared worst at 58.33%. Division Three had a reversal rate of 54.55%. Divisions Two and One were very close in reversal rate for the decade – 51.72% and 51.61%. The reversal rate for Division Five was down to 50%. Division Six fared best with a reversal rate of 45.83%.
Between 2010 and 2020, Division Two has fared worst, with a reversal rate in civil cases of 78.26%. Three more Divisions in the First have had reversal rates over sixty percent: Six (65.52%), One (62.96%) and Three (61.54%). Division Five’s reversal rate is 58.62%. Only 46.43% of Division Four’s civil decisions have been reversed.
Next time, we’ll take a look at the civil numbers for the rest of the state.
Image courtesy of Pixabay by OpenClipArt-Vectors (no changes).