Photo of Kirk Jenkins

Kirk Jenkins brings a wealth of experience to his appellate practice, which focuses on antitrust and constitutional law, as well as products liability, RICO, price fixing, information sharing among competitors and class certification. In addition to handling appeals, he also regularly works with trial teams to ensure that important issues are properly presented and preserved for appellate review.  Mr. Jenkins is a pioneer in the application of data analytics to appellate decision-making and writes two analytics blogs, the California Supreme Court Review and the Illinois Supreme Court Review, as well as regularly writing for various legal publications.

This time, we’re beginning a new series, looking at the geographic spread of the Court’s civil docket.  We’ll assess two issues: (1) does the spread of civil cases track – at least across longer periods – the distribution of population; and (2) how does the distribution of cases change over time.

We begin with the

For the years 2010 through 2019, overall reversal rates for First District civil cases were 100% in insurance cases, environmental law, arbitration, tax, commercial law and election law.  The reversal rate in tort was 80%.  The rate for employment law cases was 71.4%.  Two-thirds of domestic relations cases were reversed.  The reversal rate for civil

Overall reversal rates for the years 2000-2009 in wills and estates law, environmental law and election law were 100%.  The reversal rate for government and administrative law cases was 74.19%.  The rate for employment law cases was 73.68%.  The rate for domestic relations and arbitration law was 71.43%.  Working our way down the line, the

This time, we’re concluding our examination of the reversal rates of the Courts of Appeal in civil cases during the 1990s.  Overall, reversal rates were 100% with respect to property law, contract law and arbitration.  Government and administrative law and domestic relations decisions were reversed 83.33% of the time.  The reversal rate for insurance was

This time, we’re reviewing reversal rates during the 1990s for the seven then-active divisions of the Second District (Division Eight wasn’t created until later).

Overall, 100% of decisions were reversed in environmental law, contract law and secured transactions.  The reversal rate in government and administrative law was 90.91%.  Tort law saw an overall reversal rate

Justice Jenkins has cast sixteen votes to affirm in criminal cases – fourteen in 2021 and two in 2022.  He has cast two split votes.  He has cast thirteen votes to reverse – eleven in 2021 and two so far this year.

So far, Justice Jenkins has voted with the majority in all thirty-one criminal