Sooner or later, every discussion of Supreme Court statistics turns to the rates at which the appellate courts are reversed. It’s been a frequent political football nationally, with politicians praising or condemning one Circuit or another based on the percentage of their cases reversed by the Supreme Court. It’s a frequent subject of conventional wisdom
Yesterday, we began our discussion of the impact of publication at the Appellate Court on the Illinois Supreme Court’s civil and criminal dockets. We analyzed whether decisions which were published below – presumably, the decisions more open to disagreement – were more likely to lead to dissenting opinions before the Court. Today, we address the
Last week, we began our analysis of the impact of publication at the Appellate Court level on the Illinois Supreme Court’s civil and criminal dockets. Today, we look at a related question – are published Appellate Court decisions a good predictor that the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision on the case will be divided? One would
Yesterday, we began our investigation of the importance of dissents at the Appellate Court for litigation at the Illinois Supreme Court. We demonstrated that the often-heard claim that obtaining review at the Court is impossible without an Appellate Court dissent isn’t true, either on the civil or the criminal side. Today, we address a related
Last week, we wrapped up our review of the areas of law addressed by the Illinois Supreme Court in its civil and criminal dockets, year by year from 2000 through 2015. Today we begin a new topic – dissents at the Appellate Court. One frequently hears that there’s little chance of getting a PLA granted
Yesterday, we continued our review of the geographic origins of the Illinois Supreme Court’s docket with a look at the Court’s civil and criminal caseload in the years 2010-2012. Today, we conclude our analysis with a look at the past three years, 2013-2015.
The Court’s civil docket from Cook County dropped from 19 cases in
Last week, we compared the geographical sources of the Illinois Supreme Court’s civil and criminal dockets during the years 2005-2009. Today, we begin our examination of the following six years of our period of study, 2010-2016.
Two-thirds of the civil docket in 2010 arose from Cook County – 22 cases in all. Kane and Sangamon
Originally published on Law360, Feb. 3, 2016. Posted with permission.
For the past three years, we’ve taken a close statistical look at the previous year’s decisions from the Illinois Supreme Court to see what insights could be gained about the justices’ voting patterns and decision making dynamics. (View the 2012 analysis here, 2013
Yesterday, we reviewed the originating counties for the Illinois Supreme Court’s civil and criminal dockets for the years 2005-2007. Today, we turn to the years 2008 and 2009.
The data for the civil docket in 2008 is reported below in Table 174. Cook County’s share of the civil docket fell in 2008 to 38.1% of
Last week, we began reviewing where the Illinois Supreme Court’s civil and criminal dockets originated from during the first five years of our study period (2000-2004). Today and tomorrow, we review the second five years of the period.
The data for the civil docket in 2005 is reported in Table 168 below. Cook County’s share