Last time, we reviewed the Court’s unanimity rate in civil cases. This time, we’re looking at the data for how the Court’s civil decisions were distributed between one, two and three dissenting votes.
In 1990, one and two dissenter cases were 8.99% of the civil docket apiece. Three-dissenter cases accounted for only 3.37%. Two dissenter
This week and next, we’re looking at the distribution of the Court’s civil and criminal cases – unanimous decisions and one, two and three dissenters (for these purposes, we’re defining a “dissenter” as anyone who votes against the Court’s judgment, regardless of whether he or she signs or joins a written dissent).
The unanimity percentage
Yesterday, we showed that for the most part, the percentage of non-unanimous Appellate Court decisions on the Supreme Court’s docket is about the same on the civil and criminal dockets. Today, we’re asking the companion question – how important is publication at the Appellate Court? Last week, we showed that roughly sixty to eighty percent
Last week, we reviewed the data for what percentage of the Court’s civil cases had a dissenter or were published below. This week, we’re looking at the same question for the criminal side.
Between 1990 and 1994, nearly as many criminal cases as civil cases had a dissenter below – 21.74% (1990), 25.86% (1991), 11.96%
Yesterday, we showed that the Supreme Court regularly reviews roughly three civil cases which were unanimous decisions at the Appellate Court for every decision which had a dissenter below. Today, we’re looking at a similar question – how often does the Court review unpublished decisions?
Between 1990 and 1995, the share of published cases below
One often hears that in order to successfully petition for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court, a dissenter at the Appellate Court is crucial. But is it true? Today, we’re reviewing the Court’s civil docket. In order to look at the data across the entire thirty years, we calculate the percentage of civil cases
Last time, we reviewed the 3-year floating average reversal rates in criminal cases for the Divisions of the First District. In this post, we’re looking at the data for the rest of the state: the Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Districts of the Appellate Court, and direct appeals from trial court judgments.
Between 1992 and
This week, we’re looking at the reversal rate data for the criminal side of the docket. Once again, we’re using three-year floating average to tamp down wild swings in the data from year to year (at least a bit), and to avoid needless complexity in the math, we count a case as a reversal when
In Table 1342 below, we report the three-year floating average reversal rates for the Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Appellate Districts for the years 1992 to 1999. The Second District fared best during these years. The Third and Fourth were relatively equal, and the Fifth District fared worst.
The Second District had only one spike,
For the past several weeks, we’ve been reviewing the county by county data for civil and criminal cases at the Supreme Court. This week and next, we’ll be looking at the reversal rates for the Districts and Divisions of the Appellate Court. First up today – Chicago’s First District. Since it’s difficult occasionally to confirm