Yesterday, we reviewed the year-by-year data, looking at how much of the Court’s civil docket is cases which were published at the Court of Appeal.  We found that fairly consistently for the past twenty-four years, the Court has averaged between sixty and eighty percent of its civil docket in published cases.

It’s a very different story on the criminal side.  In Table 424, we report the raw numbers – the year by year total number of criminal law decisions which were published below.  The data shows a high degree of variability from one year to the next.  In 1994 and 1995, only nine and eight of the Court’s criminal decisions, respectively, were published below. From 1996 to 1998, that number rose a bit, to 14 (1996), 16 (1997) and 12 (1998).  In 1999, 26 of the Court’s criminal cases were published below.  In 2000, the number was 28 cases, and in 2001, there were 26 again.  In 2002, the Court decided 41 criminal cases which were published below.  In 2003, there were 26; in 2004, there were 30, and in 2005, there were 25.  In 2006, 19 criminal cases were published.  In 2007, 28 were, and in 2008, 209 were.  In 2009, 25 cases were published below.  In 2010, 28 cases were published.  In 2011, 15 criminal cases were published at the Court of Appeal.  In 2012, 37 cases were published, but the numbers have been flat since – 18 cases in 2013, 19 in 2014, 20 in 2015, 21 in 2016 and 19 in 2017.

In Table 425, we report the year-by-year data as a percentage of the Court’s criminal docket each year.  The data shows that although the share of the criminal docket accounted for by published cases edged upwards around 2000, published cases have never dominated the criminal docket the way they do on the civil side.  In 1994, 21.95% of the criminal docket was published below.  In 1995, only 16.33% was.  In 1996, one third of the criminal docket was published below.  In 1997, 36.36% was.  In 1998, 26.67% of the criminal docket was published below.  In 1999, the number jumped to 54.17%, and it was 50.91% in 2000.

In 2001, 44.83% of the criminal docket was published below.  In 2002, it was 57.75%.  The published portion was almost identical the next three years – 41.27% in 2003, 41.1% in 2004 and 40.98% in 2005.  In 2006, 35.85% of the criminal docket was published.  In 2007, 45.9% was.  In 2008, 43.94% of the criminal cases were published, and in 2009, 40.98% were.  In 2010, 38.36% of the criminal docket was published.  In 2011, 29.41% was.  In 2012, the published share rose to 48.05%.  Since that time, the published share has been fairly consistent – 36% in 2013; 34.55% in 2014; 45.45% in 2015; 40.38% in 2016 and 45.24% in 2017.

Join us back here next week as we continue our work on the Court’s decision making.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Rex Boggs (no changes).