Last year, we looked at the areas of law which the California Supreme Court drew its civil docket from between 2005 and 2007.  Today, we turn to the final two years of this second five-year period, 2008 and 2009.

Arbitration law, well down on the docket in previous years, shot to the top in 2008 with 15% of the civil docket.  Tort law remained near the top, accounting for 12.5% of the caseload.  Employment law, government and administrative law and contract law each contributed 12.5% as well.  Environmental law was up sharply, contributing four cases, or 10% of the docket.  Civil procedure and constitutional law were next, accounting for 7.5% of the civil docket each.  The rest of the docket was scattered among various areas accounting for one case each – domestic relations, consumer law, workers’ compensation and tax law (2.5% of the docket each).

We conclude by looking at the civil docket for 2009.  Tort and employment law were at the top of the docket for 2009, accounting for 15.91% of the docket apiece.  Civil procedure was not far behind with five cases, or 11.36% of the docket.  Insurance law was next, accounting for 9.09% of the cases.  Government and administrative law, constitutional law and commercial law were next with three cases each, or 6.82% of the civil docket.  Consumer law, environmental and property law were next, contributing 4.55% of the docket apiece.  The rest of the docket was widely scattered, with domestic relations, workers’ compensation, arbitration, contract law, tax law and wills and estates accounting for 1 case apiece – 2.27% of the civil docket.

Join us back here next Thursday and we take a close look at the Court’s criminal docket between 2005 and 2009.

Image courtesy of Flickr by dlcau58 (no changes).