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This week, we begin a new phase of our analysis: how long does the average case remain pending at the California Supreme Court from grant of review to oral argument to decision, and what are the differences between civil, criminal and death penalty cases?

In Table 167 below, we report the mean number of days, year by year, from grant of review to oral argument in civil cases.  In 2000, the Court averaged 559.959 days per case from grant to argument.  The following year, the average had dropped to 510.313.  For 2002 and 2003, the average remained flat – 511.75 in 2002, and 511.455 in 2003.  But for 2004, the average lag time from grant to argument rose about 10% to 568.434 days.  For 2005, the average rose even further to 602.451.  The days from grant to argument was relatively flat in 2006 at 599 days, before rising to 637.714 days in 2007.

Table 167

In Table 168, we report the mean number of days from oral argument to decision for the same years.  In 2000, the average civil decision took 76.347 days from argument to decision.  That figure dropped to 70.25 days for 2001 before rising to 75.458 days in 2002 and 74.045 days in 2003.  In the years since, the average has dropped slightly, to 71.981 days in 2004, 69.9804 days in 2005, 68.396 days in 2006 and 69.875 days in 2007.

Table 168

Join us back here tomorrow as we turn our attention to the Court’s criminal docket between 2000 and 2007.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Robert Bejil (no changes).