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This week, we’re looking at a new topic in our continuing analysis of the California Supreme Court’s decision making since 2000: how high a fraction of the Court’s civil docket involved a dissent at the Court of Appeal, and what predictive value does a dissent at the Court of Appeal have for the result at

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Today, we conclude our analysis of the areas of law comprising the California Supreme Court’s criminal docket.

In Table 82 below, we report the numbers of cases falling in each area of law from 2000 to 2015.  Automatic death penalty appeals accounted for 331 of the Court’s 969 criminal cases.  The Court decided 154 criminal

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For the past six weeks, we’ve been analyzing the year-by-year evolution of the areas of law covered by the California Supreme Court’s civil and criminal dockets.  I once read a quote from an appellate judge who commented that every jurisdiction completely restates its law every twenty years.  Since our data library covers nearly that long

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Today, we conclude our review of the areas of law which the California Supreme Court draws its civil and criminal dockets from with a look at the Court’s criminal docket over the past three years.

In 2013, automatic death penalty appeals accounted for 35.29% of the criminal docket.  As always, the next most frequent area

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For the past several weeks, we’ve been reviewing the areas of law from which the California Supreme Court has drawn its civil and criminal docket in the years since 2000.  Today and tomorrow, we’ll address the criminal docket in the years 2010 through 2015.

In Table 74 below, we report the breakdown for the Supreme

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Today, we wrap up our analysis of the areas of law which have comprised the California Supreme Court’s civil docket over the past sixteen years, focusing on the civil docket for the years 2013 through 2015.

Government and administrative law jumped to the top spot in the civil docket for 2013, accounting for 18.92% of

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For the past several weeks, we’ve been reviewing the areas of law which the California Supreme Court has drawn its civil and criminal dockets from during the years 2000 to 2015.  This week, we address the civil docket between 2010 and 2015.

For 2010, employment was far in front of every other area, contributing nine

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Today, we continue our analysis of the areas of law covered by the California Supreme Court in its civil and criminal dockets by addressing the criminal dockets during the years 2008 and 2009.

In 2008, the Court decided 26 automatic death penalty appeals, but with the criminal side of the docket slightly busier, the death

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For the past two weeks, we’ve been reviewing the areas of law covered by the California Supreme Court’s civil and criminal dockets, year by year, beginning in 2000.  Today and tomorrow, we address the criminal docket between 2005 and 2009.

Death penalty appeals were up sharply in 2005.  The Court decided 25 automatic death penalty