Last week, we addressed the Court’s year-by-year history with employment law cases. Today, we’re taking a closer look: (1) does the Court tend to take a disproportionate share of cases won by one side or the other at the Court of Appeal? (2) does the Court reverse either side’s wins at an unexpectedly high (or low) rate? and (3) how often does the Court reverse employment law decisions in general in comparison to the rest of the civil docket?

Since 1991, the Court has taken slightly more employers’ wins from the Court of Appeal than employees’ wins – 54.74% of the total cases. However, the reversal rate on employers’ wins is reasonably close to the Court’s overall trends – 55.77%.

The Court has affirmed twenty-three employer wins over the entire twenty-seven year period: two in 1998, one each in 1999 and 2000, two in 2002 and 2005, one in 2006, two in 2008, five in 2009, three in 2010, one in 2011, two in 2012 and one in 2013.

The Court reversed one employer win in 1995, two in 1997, one in 1999, two in 2000, one in 2001, two each year from 2002 to 2004, one in 2005, two in 2006 and 2007, one in 2008 and 2009, two in 2010, one in 2011, 2012 and 2014, two in 2015 and one in 2016 and 2017.

The Court’s reversal rate on employee wins from the Court of Appeal is slightly higher: 58.14%. The Court affirmed two employee wins in 1992, one in 1994, three in 1996, one in 1998, 2001 and 2003, two in 2004, one in 2005, two in 2008, and one per year in 2009, 2010, 2014 and 2016.

The Court reversed one employee win in 1993, two in 1994 and 1995, one in 1998 and 2000, two in 2002, three in 2003, one in 2005, three in 2006, two in 2007, one in 2008, three in 2010 and one per year in 2011, 2013 and 2014.

Overall, the Court has reversed in 57.89% of its employment law cases since 1991. The Court reversed in two-thirds of its cases from 1991 to 1995, 46.67% from 1996 to 2000, 56.52% from 2001 to 2005, 59.38% from 2006 to 2010, and 62.5% of its employment law cases since 2011.

Join us back here tomorrow as we turn our attention to the criminal law docket for a review of the Court’s cases involving sexual offenses.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Scrubhiker (no changes).