Yesterday, we reviewed the Court’s year-by-year experience with the length of its opinions (majorities, special concurrences and dissents) in criminal cases for the years 1990 through 2003. Today, we’re looking at the years 2004 through 2017.
The average majority opinion declined in length after about 1996, and its downward drift continued during this period. In
Last week, we began our study of the length of the Court’s opinions since 1990 with a look at the civil docket, looking at such questions as whether opinions are getting consistently longer or shorter, and whether longer dissents are related, all other things being equal, to longer majority opinions. This week, we’re looking at
In our last post, we addressed the yearly average length of the Court’s opinions in civil cases for the year 1990 through 2003. Today, we’re looking at the years 2004 through 2017. In doing so, we’re looking for evidence on two questions: first, are opinions getting shorter or longer over time; and second, do longer
This week, we take up a new topic: how has the length of the Court’s opinions – majority opinions, special concurrences and dissents – evolved over the past twenty-eight years? We’ll review the civil docket this week – today on the years 1990-2003 and tomorrow on 2004-2017 – and then turn to the criminal docket
Yesterday, we reviewed the average votes to affirm criminal cases from the First District at the Supreme Court between 1990 and 2017. Today, we’re reviewing the numbers for the rest of the state.
The Second District’s votes to affirm in criminal cases has been equally distributed. For nine years, the votes to affirm was four
Last week, we reviewed the data across the Districts and Divisions of the Appellate Court for yearly average votes to affirm the Appellate Court’s decisions in civil cases before the Supreme Court. This week, we’re looking at votes to affirm in criminal cases.
In Table 943, we report the data for Division One of the
Last time, we began reviewing the performance of each District and Division of the Appellate Court for the years 1990 to 2017 using a different metric: average votes each year to affirm the Appellate Court’s decision, regardless of whether the ultimate result was to affirm or reverse. After reviewing the numbers for Chicago’s First District
For the past two weeks, we’ve been reviewing the reversal rates before the Supreme Court of each District and Division of the Appellate Court since 1990. But not all affirmances (or reversals) are created equal. A 4-3 reversal is arguably a different thing than a 7-0 reversal (and the same goes for affirmances by those
Yesterday, we reviewed the District-by-District reversal rates in criminal cases for the courts of Chicago’s First District. Today, we’re reviewing the data for the rest of the state.
But first, let’s review the criminal cases decided in the First District for which we couldn’t determine a specific Division (the vast majority of these cases fall
Last week, we reviewed the data on reversal rates for the various Districts and Divisions of the Appellate Court in civil cases at the Supreme Court. This week, we’re taking a look at the criminal docket.
In Table 918, we report the overall reversal rate for each intermediate Court in the 1,361 criminal and quasi-criminal