Last week, we reviewed the year-by-year totals for the Court’s arbitration cases and cases involving property crimes.  Today, we’re taking a closer look at the data for arbitration cases.

The Court’s 41 arbitration cases since 1990 have been almost equally split between defendants’ and plaintiffs’ wins – defendants’ wins from the Court of Appeal have been 51.22% of the total.  The Court has reversed 52.38% of the defendants’ wins – a few points below their trend across all cases.

The Court affirmed two defense wins in 1992, one in 1993, one each in 2000, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008 and one in 2016.

The Court reversed one defense win per year in 1994, 1997 and 200, two in 2005, and one per year in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2017.

The Court has been far more likely to reverse plaintiffs’ wins from the Court of Appeal in arbitration cases than cases won by the defendants below.  Since 1990, the reversal rate for plaintiffs’ wins is 75%.  The Court affirmed one plaintiffs’ win in 2000, two in 2003 and one in 2013 and 2016.

The Court reversed a plaintiff’s win a year in 1996, 1999 and 2005, two in 2007 and 2008, one in 2009, two in 2010, one per year in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and two in 2015.

In Table 608, we report the Court’s overall reversal and partial reversal rate, irrespective of which party won below.  Since 1990, the Court has reversed 75.61% of the arbitration decisions it has reviewed.  The Court reversed in two of four cases between 1990 and 1995.  The Court reversed in four of six cases from 1996 to 2000.  Between 2001 and 2005, the Court reversed in five of eight cases – 62.5%.   Between 2006 and 2010, the Court reversed in twelve of thirteen cases – 92.31%.  All but one of those twelve cases were complete reversals, not reversals in part.  Since 2010, the Court has reversed in eight of ten arbitration cases.  All eight reversals were complete rather than partial.

Join us back here tomorrow as we turn our attention to the Court’s cases involving property crimes.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Gregory Varnum (no changes).

Yesterday, we reviewed the yearly numbers of arbitration cases on the Court’s civil docket.  Today, we’re on the criminal side, looking at cases involving property crimes such as robbery, forgery and theft.  Since 1991, the Court has decided thirty-four cases involving the elements and defenses to property crimes.

The Court decided one case per year in 1991, 1994 and 1995.

The Court decided one case in 1998, three in 1999, five in 2000, one in 2001, four in 2002 and one in 2003.

The Court decided one case per year in 2004, 2005 and 2006, two in 2008 and one each in 2009 and 2010.

The Court decided two cases in 2011, two more in 2012, one each in 2013 and 2014 and three in 2016.

Join us back here next Thursday as we take a more detailed look at the Court’s arbitration decisions.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Heather Paul (no changes).

This week, we’re continuing our review of the Court’s case work, one area of law at a time, with two new subjects: today, civil arbitration cases, and tomorrow – cases involving the elements and defenses to property crimes.  Arbitration cases have taken on increased importance in recent years with a stream of decisions from the United States Supreme Court.  Since 1991, the Court has decided forty-one arbitration cases (more than double the total decided by the Illinois Supreme Court during a similar period).

The Court had no arbitration cases in 1991 but decided two in 1992 and one each in 1993, 1994, 1996 and 1997.

The Court decided one arbitration case in 1999, three in 2000 and three more in 2003.

The Court decided one arbitration case in 2004, four in 2005, two in 2006, three in 2007, four in 2008, one in 2009 and three in 2010.

The Court decided one arbitration case in 2011 and 2012, two in 2013, one in 2014, two each in 2015 and 2016 and one in 2017.

Join us back here tomorrow as we review the Court’s cases involving property crimes.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Mark Gunn (no changes).

Yesterday, we took a close look in the civil docket at the Court’s record since 1991 with employment law cases. Today, we’re on the criminal side of the docket, taking a further look at the Court’s cases involving sexual offenses.

Over the entire twenty-seven year period, 52.38% of the Court’s criminal cases involving sexual offenses were won by the prosecution at the Court of Appeal. Of those prosecution wins, the Court reversed only 27.27%.

The Court affirmed one prosecution win in 1992, two in 1999, three in 2001, one in 2002, two in 2003 and 2004, one in 2011, three in 2012 and one in 2013.

The Court reversed one prosecution win in 1999, one in 2001, one in 2002, two in 2004 and one in 2010.

The Court’s overall reversal rate when reviewing cases won by the defendants at the Court of Appeal is 95%. Because of the rarity of affirmances, we present both results in Table 594 below. The Court reversed one defense win per year in 1992, 1994, 1995, 1997 and 2001. In 2002, the Court affirmed won, but reversed two. The Court then reversed two cases in 2005, one each year from 2010 to 2012, three in 2013, two in 2014 and one each in 2015 and 2017.

Overall, the Court has reversed 59.52% of criminal judgments involving sexual offenses (curiously, all but one of the reversals was complete as opposed to reversed-in-part). From 1991 to 1995, the Court reversed 75% of the time. From 1996 to 2000, the Court reversed in two of four cases. From 2001 to 2005, the reversal was once again 50% – nine of eighteen cases. From 2006 to 2010, the Court decided only two such cases, reversing in both. Since 2011, the Court has reversed in 64.29% of its cases.

Join us back here next Thursday as we turn our attention to two new areas of law.

Image courtesy of Flickr by DocentJoyce (no changes).

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).

Last time, we reviewed the Court’s year-by-year load of employment law cases. Today we’re on the criminal side of the docket, looking at the Court’s history with sexual offense cases. Since 1991, the Court has decided forty-two cases which primarily involved such issues.

The Court had no such cases in 1991, two in 1992 and one each in 1994, 1995 and 1997.

The Court decided three cases in 1999, five in 2001 and 2002, two in 2003 and four in 2004.

The Court decided two cases in 2005 but had none from 2006 through 2009. The Court decided two cases each in 2010 and 2011.

The Court had four cases in 2012, four more in 2013, two in 2014 and one each in 2015 and 2017.

Join us back here on Thursday as we take a closer look at the Court’s recent history with employment law cases.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Damian Gadal (no changes).

 

Last week, we wrapped up our two-week consideration of the Court’s history with tax cases and attorney disciplinary matters.  This week and next, we’re turning to two new topics: on the civil side, the Court’s history with employment law.  On the criminal side, the Court’s cases primarily involving sex offense issues.

Since 1991, the Court has decided ninety-seven employment law cases.  The Court had none in 1991, but two in 1992, one in 1993, three per year in 1994, 1995 and 1996 and two in 1997.

The Court decided four cases in 1998, two in 1999, five in 2000, two in 2001, six in 2002 and 2003 and four in 2004.

The Court decided five employment law cases in 2005, six in 2006, four in 2007, six in 2008, seven in 2009, nine in 2010 and four in 2011.

The Court decided three cases in 2012, two in 2013, four in 2014, two in 2015, three in 2016 and two in 2017.

Join us back here tomorrow as turn our attention to the Court’s history with prosecutions for sex offenses.

Image courtesy of Flickr by K Conkling (no changes).

Last time, we took a close look at the Court’s history with tax law cases – whether the Court more often hears tax challengers’ wins from the Court of Appeal or government’s wins and how often it reverses each side’s wins.  Today, we’re looking at the Court’s attorney disciplinary cases.

It should be pointed out at the outset that the cases which over the years have resulted in full-blown opinions by the Court represent only a small fraction of its attorney disciplinary decisions.  A great many disciplinary matters are dealt with by the Court in unpublished orders. 

Because State Bar disciplinary decisions go straight from the State Bar Court to the Supreme Court, the only cases which can reasonably be said to have been won by the attorney below are attorney admission disputes where the petition for review has been filed by the Bar Examiners.  We report these cases in Table 576 below.  One such decision was reversed in 1995, another was reversed in 2000.  Attorney litigants won one admissions case in 2014 and lost two.

We report the Court’s history with disciplinary cases in Table 577.  The Court decided twenty-one cases in 1991, siding with the Bar in seventeen and reversing at least in part in four.  The Court affirmed three decisions in 1995, one in 1997, 1998 and 2000, four in 2001, two in 2002, one in 2004 and 2005, two in 2014 and one in 2015.

Overall, the Court has reversed, in whole or in part, in only 26.83% of its attorney cases.  The Court reversed in 36% of its cases from 1991 to 1995.  The Court reversed in only 25% of its cases from 1996 to 2000.  The Court didn’t reverse in any of its eight attorney cases from 2001 to 2005, and it didn’t decide any attorney cases from 2006 to 2010.  The Court reversed in 25% of its attorney cases from 2011 through 2017.

Join us back here later this week as we turn our attention to new areas of law.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Ken Lund (no changes).

Last week, we introduced two new areas of law in our ongoing examination of how the Court selects and decides cases: tax law and attorney disciplinary cases.  This week, we’re taking a deeper look, asking our four usual questions: (1) does the Court take more cases won by one side or the other below? (2) does the Court reverse one side or the other’s wins more often? and (3) irrespective of who won below, does the Court reverse in this area of law more often than in the docket as a whole?  Today: tax law.

The Court’s tax law cases are nearly dead-even between the two sides: 52.94% of the Court’s cases were won by the party challenging the tax below.  Interestingly, the Court’s reversal rate is higher than the docket-wide average for both sides.  The Court has reversed tax challengers’ wins 61.11% of the time, and has reversed government wins in tax cases 62.5% of the time.

In Table 571, we review the yearly totals for tax challengers’ wins affirmed by the Court.  They’ve been few: the Court affirmed one each in 1995, 1999, 2001, 2006, 2013, 2014 and 2017.

The Court reversed one challenger’s win in 1991, two in 1995, one in 2003, 2006 and 2010, two in 2011, and one per year in 2012, 2014 and 2015.

The Court affirmed one government win in a tax case in 1993 and 1994, two in 2006 and one in 2007 and 2009.

The Court reversed two government wins in 1992, one each in 1994 and 1998, two in 2001 and one in 2006, 2008, 2013 and 2017.

Overall, the Court has reversed entirely in 60.61% of its tax law cases since 1991, a rate several points higher than its reversal rate for the entire civil docket.  When we take into account partial reversals, the reversal rate rises to two-thirds.  The Court reversed two thirds of its tax cases between 1991 and 1995.  Between 1996 and 2000, the reversal rate was 50%.  Between 2001 and 2005, the Court reversed in whole or in part in all four of its tax cases.  Between 2006 and 2010, the Court reversed in 62.5% of its tax cases.  Since 2011, the Court has reversed in tax cases exactly 60% of the time.

Join us back here tomorrow as we turn our attention to the Court’s attorney disciplinary cases.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Jeff Turner (no changes).

Yesterday, we reviewed the Court’s tax law cases.  Today, we’re taking a closer look at the Court’s cases involving attorney discipline.

For the entire period of 1991 through 2017, the Court decided forty-two attorney disciplinary cases – exactly half of them in 1991 (21 cases).  The Court decided no cases in 1992, 1993 or 1994 and four cases in 1995.

The Court decided one cases in 1997, one in 1998, two in 2000, four in 2001 and two in 2002.

The Court decided two attorney disciplinary cases in 2004, one in 2005 and none from 2006 through 2010.

The Court decided no attorney disciplinary cases from 2011 through 2013, three in 2014, one in 2015 and none in 2016 or 2017.

Join us back here next Thursday as we take a more intensive look at the Court’s tax law cases.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Woody Hibbard (no changes).