Last time, we reviewed the data for civil cases between 1990 and 2004, comparing the percentage of cases in which there was a dissent at the Court of Appeal to the percentage of civil cases in which there was dissent at the Supreme Court.  This time, we’re looking at the data for criminal cases during the same years.

There was very little correlation between dissent at the Court of Appeal and division at the Supreme Court in criminal cases.  In none of the fifteen years between 1990 and 2004 was the dissent rate at the Court of Appeal higher than Supreme Court division, and in most years, Supreme Court division was considerably higher.

In 1990, 31.25% of criminal cases had a dissenter, while only 1.25% of those same cases had a dissent below.  In 1991, 39.39% had a dissent at the Supreme Court, while only 6.06% had a dissent below.  The following year, the numbers were almost identical – 39.66% at the Supreme Court, 6.9% at the Court of Appeal.  In 1993, the margin increased – 62% had dissents at the Supreme Court, only 10% had a dissenter at the Court of Appeal.  In 1994, 60.98% of criminal cases had a dissenter at the Supreme Court, while only 2.4% had a dissenter below.

The margins decreased a bit in the years that followed but stayed large.  In 1996, 35.71% of criminal cases had a dissent at the Supreme Court, while 6.82% had a dissent below.  In 1998, it was 44.44% at the Supreme Court, 11.11% at the Court of Appeal.  In 2000, 14.55% had a dissent at the Court of Appeal while 30.91% had a dissent at the Supreme Court.  In 2002, it was 35.21% at the Supreme Court, 16.9% at the Court of Appeal.

Join us back here next week as we continue our review of the dissent data.

Image courtesy of Flickr by R Boed (no changes).