In recent years, Fifth District civil cases have continued to be relatively uncommon on the Court’s docket.  In 2005, the Court decided two cases from Fresno and one each from Kern and Stanislaus counties.  In 2006, the Court decided one case from Kern county and one from Tulare.  In 2007, the Court decided one case each from Kings, Merced and Tulare county.  In 2008, the Court decided one case from Tuolumne county.  There were no civil cases from the Fifth District in 2009.

The Court decided no civil cases from the Fifth District in 2010 or 2011.  In 2012 and 2013, there was only one – Stanislaus county in 2012 and Fresno county in 2013.  In 2014, the Court decided one case each from Stanislaus, Tulare and Tuolumne counties.

The Court decided one civil case from Kern county in 2015.  There were no Fifth District civil cases in 2016.  In 2017, the Court decided one case from Fresno.  In 2018, there were three cases from Fresno and one from Kern county.  So far in 2019, the Court has decided no civil cases from the Fifth District.

Finally, we compare each county’s share of the total population of the Fifth District to that county’s share of the civil cases.  Fresno is arguably overrepresented on the docket – it has 27.91% of the population of the Fifth, but 37.25% of the civil cases from 1990 to 2017.  The numbers for Kern county are virtually identical – 25.17% of the population, 25.49% of the civil cases.  Kings county is roughly proportional to population too – 4.25% of the population and 5.88% of the civil cases.  Madera, Mariposa and Merced counties are all comparatively small: 4.43%, 0.49% and 7.71% of the Fifth District – and they’ve had very few cases on the civil docket: none from Madera, none from Mariposa, and 1.97% of the cases from Merced.  Stanislaus county is proportional – 15.43% of the population, 15.69% of the civil cases.  Tulare county is a bit under: 13.08% of the population, 7.84% of the civil cases.  Tuolumne county accounts for only 1.53% of the population but has produced 5.88% of the civil cases.

Join us back here next time as we look at the Fifth District’s criminal cases.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Naotake Murayama (no changes).