Today, we complete our two-week review of the reversal rates of the Districts and Divisions of the Courts of Appeal in civil and criminal cases between 2000 and 2015.

The Court has heard only two criminal cases from Division One of the First District between 2008 and 2015.  Both were affirmed.  Division Two of the First District has had a more difficult time before the Court, with a three-year floating reversal rate of 75% in 2008 and 2009, 100% in 2011, 83.33 in 2012, 80% in 2013, and two-thirds in 2014.  Like Division One, Division Three of the First District has had almost no cases at all on the Court’s criminal docket, and has had a reversal rate of zero from 2008 through 2013.  Division Four, on the other hand, had a reversal rate of 100% in 2008, zero until 2012, and 50% from 2013 through 2015.  Division Five of the First District had a reversal rate of only 40% in 2010 and 25% in 2011, but has steadily risen since, to 57.14% in 2012, 100% in 2013, 75% in 2014 and 66.67 in 2015.

Division One of the Second District has had a three-year floating reversal rate of 100% between 2008 and 2010, one third in 2012, forty percent from 2013 to 2014, and 25% in 2015.  The reversal rate for Division Two of the Second District was 100% in 2010 and 2011, before falling to zero from 2012 through 2014.  The reversal rate at Division Three fell as time went on as well – 100% in 2008 and 2009, 80% in 2011, 50% in 2012 and zero for 2013 through 2015.  Division Four of the Second District has followed the opposite path, low in the first half of the period, higher in the second half.  The court’s reversal rate was 20% in 2008, 37.5% in 2009, half in 2010 and 2012, 75% in 2013, 80% in 2014 and 100% in 2015.

The reversal rate in Division Five of the Second District was about the statewide average between 2008 and 2011: half in 2008, two-thirds in 2009 and 2010, and 60% in 2011 – before falling to one-third in 2012, 25% in 2013, and half in 2014.  The reversal rate for Division Six, on the other hand, was above the statewide average for most of the period.  In 2008 and 2009, Division Six had a reversal rate of 83.33%.  In 2010, the rate was 100%.  The rate was 85.71% in 2011, 71.43% in 2012, 50% in 2013, 75% in 2014 and 100% in 2015.  The reversal rate for Division Seven was generally above the statewide average too – 57.14% in 2008, 71.43% in 2009, 100% in 2011 and 2013, and 75% in 2014 and 2015.

Division Eight of the Second District was above the statewide average for the first half of the period, but slightly below for the second half.  The court saw two-thirds of its criminal decisions reversed in 2008 and 2009, 100% in 2010 and 2011, three-quarters in 2012, and half from 2013 through 2015.

Division Three performed quite well throughout these years.  In 2008, the court’s reversal rate was two-thirds, but in 2009, the rate was 56.25%.  The rate fell to 47.62% in 2010, 47.06% in 2011, 45% in 2012, and 46.67% in 2013, 40% in 2014 and half in 2015.  Division One of the Fourth District was consistently above the statewide average reversal rate, on the other hand.  The court’s reversal rate was 61.54% in 2010, 71.43% in 2011, 73.68% in 2012, 81.25% in 2013, 80% in 2014 and two-thirds in 2015.

Division Two of the Fourth District, on the other hand, was generally below the statewide average reversal rate.  The rate was 50% in 2008,40% in 2009 and 33.33% in 2010 before rising in the most recent years.  Division Three was below average for the first half of the period, but equal to or above average afterwards.  Division Three’s reversal rate was 50% in 2008, 42.86% in 2009 and 2010, 20% in 2011, and 50% in 2012, before rising to 75% in 2013, 87.5% in 2014 and 75% in 2015.

Division Five, on the other hand, was very close to the statewide average from close to finish.  The court’s reversal rate was 57.14% in 2008, 50% for 2009 through 2011, 66.67% in 2012, half in 2013, and 55.56% in 2014, before falling to only 25% in 2015.  The Sixth District was close to the statewide average from start to finish as well – the court’s reversal rate was 54.55% in 2008, 36.36% in 2009, 50% in 2010 and 55.56% in 2011, before rising to 71.43% in 2012, 60% in 2013, 66.67% in 2014 and three-quarters in 2015.

Next week we’ll begin another new phase of our analysis – which Districts and Divisions of the Court of Appeal have the most (and fewest) votes to affirm their decisions in civil and criminal decisions?

Image courtesy of Flickr by Jack Wolf (no changes).