Today, we’re looking at the data for the criminal docket at the Supreme Court during the 1990s – specifically (1) the total caseload; (2) the total number of pages of majority opinions written and (3) the average length of the Court’s majority opinions in criminal cases.
For the entire decade, the Court decided 611 cases.
This week, we’re turning our attention from the Appellate Court to the Supreme Court’s docket.
We’ll be reviewing three questions in order to analyze the impact of the slow decline in cases at the Appellate Court: (1) did the Supreme Court’s caseload decline? (2) Was the Supreme Court writing less in majority opinions? And (3)
This time, we’re finishing our review of the data for amicus briefs and won-loss records overall for the years 2005 through 2020.
Appellants in insurance law cases won 58.82% of their cases to 41.18% for appellees. Amici fared far worse – appellants’ amici won 20%, while appellees’ amici won only one-third. In property law cases,
This week, we’re comparing the won-loss percentage for appellants’ and appellees’ amici by area of law to the won-loss overall for the years 2005 through 2020.
Appellants in arbitration cases won 60% of their cases. Appellants’ amici won all their cases, while respondents’ amici won none of theirs.
Appellants in civil procedure cases won 63.1%
This time, we’re continuing our trip through the amicus data, comparing winning percentage for appellants’ and appellees’ amici, one area of law at a time, to the overall winning percentage for each side in that area.
In workers compensation cases, appellants won 67.5% of the cases to 32.5% for appellees. Appellants’ amici won 70% of
This week, we’re looking at another issue in our ongoing examination of the data regarding amicus briefs at the Supreme Court. Specifically, we’ll be comparing the percentage of amicus briefs supporting appellants and respondents which wound up on the winning side to the winning percentage of appellants and respondents overall.
Of course, this comparison is
Appellants’ and appellees’ amici had similar won-lost records overall in criminal cases from 2010 to 2020 – appellants won two-thirds of the time, and appellees’ amici won 69.23% of their cases.
Amicus briefs remained very (very) rare in criminal cases over the past eleven years, however. All appellants’ amici in criminal procedure, sentencing law and
Between 2010 and 2020, 212 amicus briefs have been filed at the Court in civil cases. Briefs supporting appellants have been on the winning side in 71.43% of cases, while briefs supporting appellees have prevailed in only 29.07%.
All appellants’ amici in four subjects prevailed: workers compensation, commercial law, property law and environmental law. 87.88%
Only six amicus briefs were filed in criminal cases between 2000 and 2009. Both appellants’ amici wound up winning their cases. Three of four appellees’ amici prevailed as well.
Of the two winning appellants’ amici, one was in a criminal procedure case and one was in a case involving juvenile justice issues. One amici supporting
Between 2000 and 2009, 196 amicus briefs were filed in civil cases. Appellants were far more likely to be on the winning side; appellants’ amici won 68% of the time (85 of 125 briefs) while appellees’ amici won only 36.62% of their cases (26 of 71).
Although in each case only a few briefs were