12604425314_6a26eedb9d_z

Last week, we began our analysis of the frequency and length of concurrences since 2000.  This week, we’ll be looking at the Court’s most recent history – 2008-2015.  We’ll begin today with the civil docket.

For the years 2008 through 2011, the most frequent author of concurrences on the Court was Justice Werdegar.  Since that time, Justice Liu has written the most civil concurrences.  For 2008, Justices Kennard, Werdegar and Baxter wrote two civil concurrences each.  For 2009, Justice Werdegar led the Court, writing five civil concurrences.  Justices Kennard and Moreno wrote two and Chief Justice George wrote one.  For 2010, Justices Corrigan and Kennard wrote two concurrences and Justice Werdegar wrote one.  For 2011, Justices Kennard and Werdegar wrote two concurrences, and Justices Chin and Moreno wrote one each.  For 2012, Justice Liu led with three concurrences.  Justice Werdegar wrote two and Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye wrote one.  For 2013, Justice Werdegar wrote two civil concurrences, and one each were filed by the Chief Justice and Justices Corrigan and Liu.  For 2014, Justice Chin wrote three civil concurrences.  Justices Werdegar and Liu wrote two apiece, and Justice Baxter wrote one.  Last year, Justice Liu led with four civil concurrences.  Justice Werdegar wrote three, and Justices Chin and Cuellar wrote one each.

Table 138

Turning to the average length of civil concurrences, it appears that for the years 2008 through 2011, Justices Werdegar and Kennard wrote the longest concurrences on the Court.  Since that time, the lengthiest concurrences in civil cases have been Justice Liu’s.

For 2008, Justice Kennard averaged five pages per concurrence.  Justice Werdegar averaged 4.5 pages, and Justice Baxter two.  For 2009, Justices Kennard and Moreno led at 6 and 5.5 pages, respectively.  Justice Werdegar averaged 4.6 pages, and Chief Justice George averaged four pages.  For 2010, Justice Corrigan averaged four pages, while Justices Kennard and Werdegar averaged three each.  The following year, Justices Kennard and Werdegar led at 6 and 5 pages, respectively.  Justice Chin averaged three pages and Justice Moreno two.

For 2012, Justice Liu led with an average concurrence of 13.67 pages (the result of one twenty page and one seventeen-page concurrence).  Justice Werdegar averaged seven pages and Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye averaged six.  The following year, the Chief Justice and Justice Werdegar averaged six pages per concurrence, and Justices Corrigan and Liu averaged three.  For 2014, Justice Chin led, averaging 11.33 pages per civil concurrence.  Justice Liu averaged 8.5 pages, Justice Werdegar five and Justice Baxter two.  Last year, Justice Liu led the Court, averaging 9.75 pages per concurrence.  Justice Werdegar averaged six pages, Justice Cuellar wrote a single five-page concurrence and Justice Chin averaged three pages.

Table 139

Join us back here tomorrow as we turn our attention to the Court’s recent experience with criminal cases.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Brando.N (no changes).

31705683025_1cd304be82_z

Yesterday, we analyzed the Justices’ concurrences in civil cases between 2000 and 2007.  Today, we turn our attention to the Court’s criminal cases between 2000 and 2007.

Concurrences were on a downward slope during these years.  The Court’s most busy year was 2000, when there were 28 concurrences filed in criminal, quasi-criminal and juvenile matters.  There were 25 the next year, 22 in 2002, 18 in 2003, 19 in 2004, 13 in 2005, only 4 in 2006, and 13 in 2007.  For 2000, Justice Mosk led the Court, filing ten concurrences in criminal matters.  Justices Brown and Kennard were next with five apiece, Justice Werdegar filed four, and Justices Chin and Baxter filed two each.  For 2001, Justices Kennard and Werdegar led, writing seven criminal concurrences apiece.  Justice Mosk wrote five, and Justice Brown wrote three.  For 2002, Justice Werdegar led, filing eight concurrences in criminal matters.  Justice Brown wrote five, Justice Moreno wrote four, and Justices Kennard and Baxter wrote two apiece.  For 2003, Justice Kennard wrote six, Justice Baxter four and Justice Moreno three.  For 2004, Justice Werdegar led with six concurrences in criminal cases.  Justice Moreno wrote four, and Justices Kennard and Chin wrote three apiece.  For 2005, Justice Brown led with five concurrences.  Justices Kennard, Chin, Baxter and Moreno were next, each writing two.  During the light year in 2006, Justice Werdegar led with two concurrences in criminal matters, and Justices Kennard and Baxter wrote one each.  Finally, in 2007, Justice Werdegar again led with five, followed by Justices Kennard and Baxter with three each, and Justice Moreno with two.

Table 136

Reviewing the data below shows no clear pattern in terms of any Justice consistently writing the most lengthy concurrences, but Justices Kennard and Baxter generally wrote shorter ones during these years.  In 2000, Justice Brown averaged the longest concurrences at 5.6 pages.  Justice Chin averaged 4.5 pages, Justice Werdegar four pages and Justice Kennard averaged 3.2 pages.  Justices Mosk and Baxter averaged the shortest concurrences – 2.3 and 2 pages, respectively.  For 2001 and 2002, Chief Justice George averaged the longest concurrences (7.5 and 17 pages), but this number isn’t especially meaningful since it’s based on only three opinions.  Among the rest of the Court, in 2001 Justices Chin and Mosk averaged four pages, Justice Brown averaged 3.67, Justice Werdegar 3.14 pages, and Justice Kennard 2.29 pages.  For 2002, Justices Moreno and Baxter averaged 4.75 and 4.5 pages.  Justice Werdegar averaged 3.75 pages, Justice Brown averaged 3.4, and Justice Kennard averaged 1.5 pages per concurrence.  The following year, Justice Brown averaged four pages per concurrence, but the other Justices were bunched closely together – Justice Baxter 3.75, Justice Werdegar 3.5, Justices Kennard, Chin and Moreno, three pages.  For 2004, Justice Werdegar averaged four pages per concurrence.  Justice Moreno averaged three pages, and Justices Brown, Chin and Baxter averaged two apiece.  For 2005, Justices Brown and Werdegar led the Court, at 6.75 pages and 6 pages, respectively.  Justice Moreno averaged 3.5 pages per concurrence that year, Justice Kennard averaged 2.5 pages, and Justices Chin and Baxter averaged two pages.  For 2006, Justice Baxter led with a six page average, and Justices Kennard and Werdegar averaged two each.  Finally, for 2007, Justice Werdegar led the Court, averaging 4.8 pages per concurrence.  Justice Kennard averaged 4.67 pages, Justice Baxter three pages, and Justice Moreno two.

Table 137

Join us back here next Thursday as we turn our attention to the concurrences in the civil and criminal dockets during the years 2008 through 2015.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Don DeBold (no changes).

48039758_ab2d1a452a_z

Last week, we completed our analysis of which Justices of the Court have written the most (and least) dissents on both the civil and criminal sides of the docket since 2000, and which Justices tend to write the longest dissents.  So the obvious follow-up is to look at concurrences.  On the one hand, there are a number of examples on most appellate courts of last resort where an approach to a problem has originated in a concurring opinion before ultimately being adopted by a majority of the Court – so concurrences certainly have their uses.  On the other hand, concurrences and dissents likely increase lag times since additional opinions have to be prepared and the majority opinion is likely revised to respond to the other opinions.  And some scholars have argued that too many concurrences will tend to muddle the clarity of a Court’s guidance to lower courts on the law, as well as increasing conflict.  We’ll begin with concurrences on the civil side between 2000 and 2007.

Concurrences on the civil side during those years were relatively equally spread between Justices Brown (17 concurrences), Kennard (18 concurrences), Werdegar (16 concurrences) and Moreno (16 concurrences).  But for 2000, Justice Mosk was the most frequent “concurrer” on the civil side, with seven concurrences, followed by Justice Werdegar with five.  There were less than half as many civil concurrences the following year court-wide, and Chief Justice George and Justices Brown, Kennard and Werdegar each wrote two apiece.  In 2002, concurring jumped again, as Justice Brown led with seven, followed by Justice Kennard with five.  For 2003, Justice Werdegar led with four, and Justices Brown, Kennard and Moreno each had three.  The following year, concurrences were down again.  Justice Moreno led with seven, but Justice Brown was the only other Justice with more than one (she had two).

Concurrences stayed low for the rest of the period.  In 2005, Justice Moreno’s three civil concurrences were enough for the court lead; three other Justices wrote only one.  The result was the same in 2006 – three civil concurrences by Justice Moreno, one each from four others.  In 2007, there were only five civil concurrences – two each by Justices Werdegar and Baxter, and one by Justice Kennard.

Table 134

Justice Chin averaged the longest concurrences in 2000 – 12 pages.  Chief Justice George averaged six pages, Justice Brown averaged 5.67 pages, Justice Werdegar averaged 3.3 pages, Justice Mosk averaged 3.14 pages, and Justice Kennard averaged three page concurrences.  In 2001, Chief Justice George averaged the longest concurrences at 6.5 pages.  Justice Kennard averaged 2.5 pages, Justice Werdegar 2 pages, Justice Brown 1.5 pages, and Justice Mosk averaged concurrences of 1 page.  For 2002, Justice Moreno led the Court, with concurrences averaging 7.67 pages apiece.  Justice Kennard averaged 2.8 pages, Justice Brown 2.71 pages, and Justice Werdegar averaged 2.67 pages apiece.  For 2003, Justice Baxter led with an average concurrence of 12 pages.  Justices Kennard and Chin averaged six pages apiece.  Justices Brown and Moreno averaged 3.5 pages each.  For 2003, Justice Baxter led, averaging 12 pages per concurrence.  Justice Brown averaged 7.33 pages.  Justice Moreno averaged eight pages, Justice Brown averaged 7.33 pages and Chief Justice George averaged four pages.

In 2004, Justice Baxter led the Court, averaging concurrences of 14 pages.  Justices Kennard and Chin averaged six pages, and Justices Brown and Moreno averaged 3.5 pages.  For 2005, Justices Kennard and Chin led the Court, averaging four pages per concurrence.  Justice Moreno averaged 2.67 pages, and Justice Werdegar averaged one page.  In 2006, Chief Justice George led the Court, averaging seven pages per concurrence.  Justice Chin averaged six pages, Justice Werdegar five pages, Justice Baxter four pages, and Justice Werdegar averaged 2.67 pages per concurrence.  In 2007, Justice Kennard averaged three pages per concurrence.  Justices Werdegar and Baxter averaged a page and a half that year.

Table 135

Join us tomorrow as turn our attention to the Court’s concurrences in criminal cases during the years 2004 through 2007.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Kai Schreiber (no changes).

15784320730_3c64c10bb8_z

Yesterday, we reviewed the California Supreme Court’s dissents in civil cases between 2008 and 2015.  Today, we turn to the Justices’ dissents in criminal cases for the same years.

Justice Kennard led the Court in 2008 and 2009, writing 6 dissents in criminal cases each year.  In 2008, Justice Chin wrote two dissents and Justice Werdegar one.  In 2009, Justice Moreno wrote four dissents, Justice Baxter two and Justice Chin one.  In 2010, Justice Moreno led with five dissents in criminal cases, Justice Werdegar wrote four, Justice Corrigan two and Justice Kennard one.  In 2011, Justice Werdegar wrote seven dissents in criminal cases and Justice Kennard wrote six.  In 2012, Justices Kennard and Liu led, writing six dissents apiece in criminal cases.  Justices Corrigan and Werdegar wrote two apiece, and Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye and Justice Chin wrote one each.  For 2013, Justice Kennard once again led with four dissents.  Justices Corrigan, Werdegar and Liu wrote two dissents each and Justice Baxter wrote one.  For 2014, Justices Liu and Kennard wrote four dissents each, and Justices Corrigan and Werdegar wrote one apiece.  Last year, Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye and Justices Werdegar and Chin led with three dissents in criminal cases.  Justices Corrigan and Liu wrote two apiece, and Justice Cuellar wrote one.

Table 132A

For 2008, Justice Werdegar led the Court, averaging 15 pages per dissent.  Justice Chin averaged eight pages and Justice Kennard 5.83.  For 2009, Justice Moreno led, averaging 10 pages. Justice Baxter averaged 9 pages, Justice Kennard averaged 8.17 pages and Justice Chin averaged seven.  For 2010, Justice Chin wrote a single 29-page dissent.  Justices Werdegar and Moreno were next, averaging 9.25 and 9.2 pages.  Justice Kennard averaged seven pages and Justice Corrigan averaged six.  For 2011, Justices Werdegar and Kennard averaged 7.57 and 6.17 pages, respectively.  From 2012 through 2015, Justice Liu has averaged the longest dissents in criminal cases every year.  In 2012, Justice Liu averaged 22.17 pages.  Justice Corrigan averaged 20.5 pages.  Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye averaged 11 pages.  Justices Chin, Kennard and Werdegar wrote the shortest dissents – six pages, 4.83 pages and 3.5 pages, respectively.  In 2013, Justice Liu averaged 23 page dissents.  Justice Baxter averaged 19, Justice Corrigan 10, Justice Kennard 5.75 and Justice Werdegar 5.5 pages.  For 2014, Justice Liu averaged 34.25 pages for his dissents in criminal cases.  The remaining Justices all averaged less than ten pages – Justice Corrigan (9 pages), Justice Kennard (8 pages) and Justice Werdegar (6 pages).  Last year, Justice Liu averaged 26 pages per dissent.  Justice Chin averaged 15.33 pages, Justice Werdegar 13.67 pages and Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye 13.33 pages.  Justices Cuellar and Corrigan averaged nine and five pages, respectively.

Table 133

Join us back here next week as we turn our attention to a new area of our analysis.

Image courtesy of Flickr by David Wilson (no changes).

 

961537197_4f3906d213_z (1)

Last week, we began our analysis of the Justices’ dissents in civil and criminal cases, looking at the years 2000 through 2007.  Today, we turn to the dissents in civil cases between 2008 and 2015.

We begin in Table 130 below with the number of dissents written each year by each Justice.  In 2008, Justices Kennard and Moreno led, each writing three dissents in civil cases.  Justices Werdegar and Baxter wrote two apiece, and Justices Corrigan and Chin wrote one each.  In 2009, Justice Kennard led with three civil dissents.  Justice Moreno wrote two and Justices Werdegar and Baxter wrote one each.  In 2010, Justice Werdegar led the Court, writing three dissents in civil cases.  Justices Baxter and Moreno wrote two apiece, and Justices Corrigan and Kennard wrote one each.  In 2011, Justices Kennard and Chin led, writing two dissents apiece in criminal cases.  Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye and Justice Baxter wrote one each.  Pro Tem Justices Klein and Grimes wrote one dissent apiece as well.  In 2012, Justice Kennard led the Court, writing four dissents in civil cases.  Justice Liu wrote two, and Justices Corrigan, Werdegar and Chin wrote one apiece.  In 2013, Justice Kennard led the Court, writing three civil dissents.  Justices Corrigan and Baxter wrote two apiece, and Justices Chin and Liu wrote one each.  In 2014, Justice Werdegar led the Court, writing three civil dissents.  Justices Chin, Baxter and Liu wrote one dissent apiece, and Pro Tem Justice Rubin wrote one dissent.  In 2015, Justices Corrigan and Chin led, writing two dissents apiece.  Justice Liu wrote one dissent.

Table 130

In 2008, Justice Baxter’s dissents averaged 20 pages.  Justice Moreno averaged 17.33 pages.  Justice Kennard averaged 10.33 pages.  Justices Corrigan (8 pages), Chin (6 pages) and Werdegar (3 pages) wrote the shortest dissents.  In 2009, Justices Moreno (15.5 pages) and Baxter (14 pages) averaged the longest dissents.  Justices Werdegar’s dissents averaged six pages, and Justice Kennard averaged 5.67 pages.  In 2010, Justice Moreno averaged the longest dissents at 27 pages.  Justice Baxter averaged 14 pages, and Justice Werdegar 10.67.  Justices Kennard and Corrigan wrote the shortest dissents (6 pages and 4 pages, respectively).  In 2011, Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye and Justice Grimes wrote single 27 page dissents.  Justice Chin averaged 20.5 pages.  Justice Klein averaged 15 pages, Justice Baxter 10 pages, and Justice Kennard 6 pages.  In 2012, Justice Werdegar wrote the longest dissents at 19 pages.  Justice Corrigan averaged 12 pages and Justice Liu 11.5 pages.  The shortest dissents were by Justices Kennard (6.25 pages) and Chin (5 pages).  For 2013, Justice Chin averaged 29 pages.  Justice Baxter averaged 14.5 pages, Justice Corrigan 14 pages, Justice Kennard 7.33 pages and Justice Liu 5 pages.  For 2014, Justice Baxter led the Court, averaging 19 pages.  Justices Chin and Rubin were next at 15 and 14 pages, respectively.  Justice Liu averaged 12 pages and Justice Werdegar averaged 11.67 pages.  Finally, in 2015, Justice Chin averaged 21.5 pages in his civil dissents.  Justice Liu averaged 8 pages and Justice Corrigan averaged 4.5 pages.

Table 131

Join us back here tomorrow as we review the Justices’ dissents in criminal cases between 2008 and 2015.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Brewbooks (no changes).

17652032410_d85771edfd_z

This week, we’re turning our attention to a new subject, tracking which Justices most often dissented, year by year, and which Justices tended to write the longest and shortest dissents.  Yesterday, we reviewed the Justices’ dissents in civil cases between 2000 and 2007.  Today, we review the Justices’ criminal dissents for the same years.

In Table 128, we report the year-by-year distribution of dissents in criminal cases among the Justices.  In 2000, Justice Mosk led the Court with six dissents in criminal cases.  Justice Kennard was next with five dissents.  Justice Werdegar dissented three times, Chief Justice George and Justices Brown and Baxter twice apiece, and Justice Chin once.  In 2001, Justice Kennard led the Court (beginning a string of five straight years) with five dissents in criminal cases.  Justice Mosk dissented three times, Justice Brown twice, and Chief Justice George and Justice Chin once apiece.  The next year, Justice Kennard led the Court by a wider margin, dissenting eleven times in criminal cases.  Justice Moreno dissented five times, Chief Justice George and Justice Brown three times, Justice Chin twice and Justice Baxter once.  In 2003, Justice Kennard led with ten criminal dissents.  Justice Brown had four, Justice Moreno had three, Justices Werdegar and Baxter twice and Justice Chin once.  In 2004, Justice Kennard dissented ten times in criminal cases.  Justice Brown dissented six times, Justice Chin twice and Justices Werdegar and Moreno once each.  In 2005, Justice Kennard dissented seven times in criminal cases.  Justice Baxter dissented three times, and Justices Brown, Werdegar, Chin and Moreno twice apiece.

In 2006, Justices Werdegar and Baxter were tied for the court-wide lead in dissents in criminal cases with six each.  Justice Kennard dissented four times, Justice Moreno three and Justices Corrigan and Chin twice apiece.   Dissents were quite rare in criminal cases in 2007: Justice Kennard dissented five times and Justices Werdegar and Moreno twice apiece.

Table 128

We report the average length of the Justices’ dissents in criminal cases in Table 129.  Although Justice Kennard generally was the most frequent dissenter, many other Justices generally wrote longer dissents.  In 2000, Chief Justice George’s criminal dissents averaged 16 pages. Justice Chin averaged 13 pages, Justice Kennard 8.2, Justice Baxter 8 pages, Justice Brown 7 and Justice Mosk 6.17 pages.  For 2001, Justice Brown averaged the longest dissents, averaging 13.5 pages.  Justice Chin’s average dissent was eight pages.  Chief Justice George averaged six pages, Justice Kennard five and Justice Mosk three.  For 2002, Justice Chin led the Court, averaging 11.5 pages in criminal dissents.  Justice Brown averaged 11.33 pages, Justice Baxter 11 pages, Justice Moreno 9.6 pages, Justice Kennard 8.27 pages and Chief Justice George 7 pages.  For 2003, Justice Chin led with an average dissent in criminal cases of 19 pages.  Justice Baxter averaged 14 pages, Justice Moreno 10.33 pages, Justice Kennard 9 pages, Justice Werdegar 7.5 pages and Justice Brown 6.5 pages.  In 2004, a 72-page dissent in one case drove Justice Chin’s average dissent to 43.5 pages.  Justice Moreno averaged 19 pages, Justice Kennard averaged 7.6 pages, Justice Corrigan averaged 6.67 pages and Justice Werdegar averaged two pages.

For 2005, Justice Moreno led the Court, averaging 15 pages per criminal dissent.  Justice Chin was next at 12.5 pages.  Justice Baxter was next with 11.33 pages.  Justice Werdegar averaged ten pages, Justice Kennard 9.29 pages and Justice Brown averaged three pages.  For 2006t, Justice Chin led, averaging 21 pages.  Justice Baxter was second at 11.17 pages.  Justices Kennard (9 pages), Moreno (7 pages) and Corrigan (5 pages) all tended to write very short criminal dissents.  For 2007, Justice Kennard led the Court with an average criminal dissent of 7.2 pages.  Justice Moreno was next at 6.5 pages, and Justice Werdegar averaged 4.5 pages.

Table 129

Join us back here next Thursday morning as we turn our attention to the Justices’ dissents in civil and criminal cases between 2008 and 2015.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Harold Litwiler (no changes).

4945869922_ef83e34c22_z

Last week, we wrapped up our analysis of the California Supreme Court’s history with amicus briefs.  Today, we begin a new topic, tracking which Justices have most frequently dissented, and which Justices tend to write, year by year, the longest and shortest dissents.

In Table 126 below, we report the yearly distribution of dissents in civil cases among the Justices.  In 2000, Justices Kennard and Mosk dissented eight times in civil cases.  Chief Justice George dissented six times, Justice Werdegar five times, Justice Brown four times and Justice Chin once.  In 2001, Justice Werdegar led the Court, dissenting six times in civil cases.  Justices Brown and Kennard dissented five times, and Chief Justice George and Justices Baxter and Mosk dissented twice apiece.  For 2002, Justice Brown led the Court with ten dissents.  Justice Werdegar was next, dissenting four times.  Justice Kennard dissented three times, Justices Baxter and Moreno twice and Justice Chin once.  In 2003, Justice Brown once again led the Court with seven dissents.  Justice Baxter dissented six times.  Justice Chin dissented three times, Justices Moreno and Kennard twice each and Justice Werdegar once.  For 2004, Justice Brown once again led the Court, dissenting eight times in civil cases.  Justice Kennard dissented seven times.  Justices Chin and Baxter dissented four times, Justice Werdegar three times and Justice Moreno once.

Dissents were comparatively rare in 2005 and 2006.  In 2004, Justice Kennard led with four civil dissents.  Chief Justice George and Justices Werdegar, Chin and Baxter dissented twice each, and Justice Brown once.  In 2006, Justice Kennard led with six dissents.  Justice Moreno dissented five times, Justice Werdegar three times and Justice Corrigan twice.  Finally, in 2007 Justice Kennard led with nine dissents in civil cases.  Justice Chin dissented five times, Justices Werdegar and Baxter four times apiece, Justice Corrigan three times and Justice Moreno once.

Table 126

In Table 127, we report the average length of each Justice’s dissents during each year.  This data should be treated with a certain degree of caution: since Justices frequently dissent only a few times a year, what is really a random difference can have a considerable impact on the yearly averages.

For 2000, Chief Justice George’s civil dissents averaged 21.67 pages.  Justice Werdegar averaged 18 pages.  Justice Chin averaged 12 pages, Justice Kennard 10.88 pages, Justice Brown 10.25 pages, and Justice Mosk 5.13 pages.  For 2001, the longest civil dissents were written by Justices Baxter and Werdegar (17.5 and 15.33 pages, respectively), and Chief Justice George (13.5 pages).  Justice Brown averaged 9.4 pages, Justice Mosk averaged 8.5 pages and Justice Kennard averaged 7.4 pages.  Justice Baxter once again averaged the longest civil dissents in 2002, averaging 24 pages.  Justice Chin averaged 11 pages and Justice Moreno 10 pages.  The remaining Justices’ average dissents were all less than ten pages – Justice Brown (9.5 pages), Justice Werdegar (7.25 pages) and Justice Kennard (6 pages).

In 2003, Justice Chin led the Court with an average civil dissent of 23.67 pages.  Justice Moreno was next with 15.5 pages.  Justice Baxter’s dissents averaged 12.33 pages, Justice Brown averaged 12 pages, Justice Werdegar averaged 11 pages and Justice Kennard averaged 6.5 pages.  Justice Chin led the Court again in 2004 with an average civil dissent of 16.75 pages.  Among the remaining Justices, only Justice Werdegar averaged more than ten pages per dissent – 11.67.  The other Justices’ dissents were very short – Justices Brown (8.88 pages); Kennard (7.29 pages); Baxter (7.25 pages) and Moreno (7 pages).  For 2005, Justice Chin’s civil dissents once again led the Court, averaging 20.5 pages.  Chief Justice George averaged 13 pages, Justice Baxter 11 pages, Justice Werdegar 9.5 pages and Justice Kennard 4.75 pages.  Justice Brown’s single civil dissent was one page.  For 2006, Justice Moreno’s dissents averaged 12.2 pages.  Justice Kennard was second at eight pages, Justice Werdegar averaged 6.33 pages and Justice Corrigan’s dissents averaged 5.5 pages.  Dissents were on average somewhat longer in 2007.  Justice Moreno led the Court with an average dissent of 19 pages.  Justice Chin averaged 16 pages.  Justice Baxter averaged 11.75 pages, Justice Werdegar averaged 10.25 pages, Justice Kennard averaged 6.44 pages and Justice Corrigan’s civil dissents averaged 5.67 pages.

Table 127

Join us back here tomorrow as we turn our attention to the Justices’ dissents in criminal cases between 2000 and 2007.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Carol Norquist (no changes).

 

3871375404_4e6b455999_z

Yesterday, we reviewed the California Supreme Court’s experience with amicus curiae briefs in civil cases between 2008 and 2015.  Today, we conclude this topic with a review of the Court’s criminal cases during the same years.

Just as was true for the years 2000 to 2007, amicus briefs have been nowhere near as commonplace in criminal cases as they are in civil matters.  In 2008, the Court received only 3 amicus briefs in non-unanimous criminal cases and 31 in unanimous ones.  In 2009, the Court accepted 8 amicus briefs in non-unanimous cases and 29 in unanimous decisions.  For 2010, the Court accepted 13 amicus briefs in non-unanimous cases and 23 in unanimous cases.  For 2011, amicus briefs dwindled to nearly nothing on the criminal side – 1 in non-unanimous decisions and 7 in unanimous cases.  For 2012, the Court accepted 10 amicus briefs in non-unanimous cases and 29 in unanimous ones.  The following year, the Court accepted 14 amicus briefs in unanimous criminal cases, but none in non-unanimous ones.  For 2014, the Court accepted 3 amicus briefs in non-unanimous cases, but 35 in unanimous decisions.  Last year, the Court accepted 9 amicus briefs in non-unanimous criminal cases and 12 in unanimous cases.

Table 124

Turning to the per-case averages, one result is evident: dissent on the Court is not as highly correlated with heavy amicus traffic as it is on the civil side.  For 2008, the Court averaged 0.38 amicus briefs in non-unanimous cases, and 0.53 in unanimous decisions.  The next year, the Court accepted 0.67 briefs in non-unanimous cases and 0.59 in unanimous ones.  Amicus briefs topped out at 1.18 for non-unanimous cases in 2010; the Court averaged only 0.39 in unanimous decisions.  For 2011, amicus briefs almost zeroed out – only 0.07 average in non-unanimous cases, 0.19 average in unanimous cases.

For 2012, the Court averaged 0.63 amicus briefs in non-unanimous criminal cases, 0.48 in unanimous ones.  In 2013, there were no amicus briefs in non-unanimous cases and 0.34 in unanimous ones.  In 2014, the Court averaged 0.33 amicus briefs in non-unanimous cases, 0.74 in unanimous ones.  Last year, the Court averaged 0.82 amicus briefs in non-unanimous cases and 0.38 in unanimous cases.

Table 125

Join us back here next Thursday as we begin our analysis of a new topic in our ongoing analytics work.

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

7503534536_f4012e2b31_z

Last week, we began our analysis of a new issue, tracking the California Supreme Court’s considerable experience with amicus curiae briefs in both civil and criminal cases.  Last week, we covered the years 2000 through 2007.  Today, we turn our attention to civil cases from 2008 to 2015.

In Table 122, we report the total number of briefs the Court accepted in civil cases, year by year and divided between non-unanimous and unanimous decisions.  For 2008, the Court accepted 69 briefs in cases decided non-unanimously, and 124 briefs in unanimous cases.  For 2009, the numbers were nearly equal – 98 briefs in non-unanimous cases, 100 in unanimous cases.  The following year, the two sides diverged again – the Court accepted 28 amicus briefs in non-unanimous cases and 124 in unanimous cases.  In 2011, the Court accepted 46 extra briefs in non-unanimous cases and 80 in unanimous cases.

In 2012, the Court accepted 42 amicus briefs in non-unanimous civil cases, and 88 in unanimous ones.  For 2013, the Court accepted 31 amicus briefs in non-unanimous cases and 100 in unanimous cases.  For 2014, the numbers were once again relatively close, as the Court accepted 55 amicus briefs in non-unanimous decisions and 64 in unanimous cases.  Last year, the Court accepted 29 amicus briefs in non-unanimous cases and 94 in unanimous ones.

Table 122

We report the per-case averages for this data in Table 123.  Note that in most recent years, the Court has averaged more amicus briefs in non-unanimous cases than in unanimous ones – likely because controversial and complex issues tend to attract both amicus briefs and dissent.  For 2008, the Court averaged 7.67 amicus briefs in non-unanimous cases and 4.13 in unanimous ones.  These averages are influenced by two outliers – In re Marriage Cases, in which the Court accepted 46 amicus briefs, and City of Hope National Medical Center v. Genentech, Inc., in which the Court accepted 18.

The data was equally impacted in 2009 by an outlier case – Strauss v. Horton, in which the Court accepted 62 amicus briefs.  For the year, the Court averaged 14 amicus briefs in non-unanimous cases and 2.71 in unanimous ones.  In 2010, the Court averaged 3.11 amicus briefs in non-unanimous cases and 3.88 in unanimous ones.  The next year, the Court accepted 5.75 briefs in non-unanimous cases and 3.2 in unanimous decisions.  For 2012, the Court averaged six amicus briefs in non-unanimous decisions, and 4.63 in unanimous decisions.  For 2013, the Court accepted 3.88 amicus briefs in non-unanimous decisions and 4.17 in unanimous cases.  For 2014, the Court averaged 7.86 amicus briefs in non-unanimous cases and 4 in unanimous decisions.  Last year, amicus briefs were nearly as high, averaging 7.25 in non-unanimous cases and 3.36 in unanimous cases.

Table 123

Join us back here tomorrow as we turn our attention to the Court’s experience with amicus briefs in criminal cases during these same years.

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

14348716785_52ea0e3372_z

Yesterday, we began a detailed look at the California Supreme Court’s extensive experience with amicus curiae briefs, beginning with civil cases between 2000 and 2007.  Today, we turn our attention to the Court’s less extensive experience with amicus briefs in criminal cases.

In Table 120 below, we report the total number of amicus briefs accepted by the Court in criminal cases between 2000 and 2007, divided between non-unanimous and unanimous decisions.  Between 2000 and 2001, the Court accepted few criminal amicus briefs.  In 2000, the Court accepted two amicus briefs in non-unanimous decisions, and twelve in unanimous decisions.  In 2001, the Court accepted three briefs in non-unanimous criminal cases, and 24 in unanimous decisions.  The following year, amicus briefs took a sudden jump, with the Court accepting 34 briefs in non-unanimous cases, and 28 in unanimous decisions.  The following year, amicus briefs were down somewhat, but still comparatively high, as the Court accepted 14 briefs in non-unanimous decisions and 11 in unanimous cases.  In 2004, the Court accepted eight amicus briefs in non-unanimous decisions, but 16 in unanimous ones.  The following year, the Court accepted nine briefs in non-unanimous decisions and 19 in unanimous cases.  Amicus briefs dropped sharply in 2006, to four in non-unanimous cases and three in unanimous ones, but were up somewhat the following year.  Although the Court accepted only one amicus brief in a non-unanimous criminal decision, it accepted 25 in unanimous cases.

Table 120

We report the average number of amicus briefs per case in Table 121 below.  We see that amicus briefs are quite rare across the spectrum of criminal cases.  In 2000, the Court averaged only 0.25 amicus briefs for each criminal case.  In 2001, the Court accepted 0.47 briefs per case.  The following year, the Court accepted 0.9 briefs per case.  Between 2003 and 2005, the average number of amicus briefs per case was flat – 0.4 in 2003, 0.33 in 2004 and 0.47 in 2005.  In 2006, amicus briefs fell to almost nothing – an average of 0.13 per case.  The following year, the average returned to its trend level, as the Court received 0.43 amicus briefs for each criminal case.

Table 121

Join us back here next Thursday as we turn our attention to the Court’s experience with amicus briefs between 2008 and 2015.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Harold Litwiler (no changes).