Supreme Court Lag Times

This time, we’re reviewing the lag time data for the second step in the typical non-death penalty criminal case at the Supreme Court: the average days from the order granting review to the order appointing counsel.

In 1990, the average wait was 44 days.  That fell to 35.33 in 1991 but rose to 60.82 the

For the past several weeks, we’ve been reviewing detailed lag time data on the civil side.  Now, we’re going to look at the criminal side of the docket.  First up: what’s the average lag time from the filing of a petition for review to the order granting review?

The average progressively edged upwards during the

Last time, we showed that the lag time from the end of party briefing to oral argument was longer for civil cases in which the Court was divided than cases which were ultimately decided unanimously. But is lag time related to the degree of disagreement? Do 4-3 decisions take the longest, or do 6-1 decisions

Last week, we investigated whether the lag time from the end of briefing, including amicus and supplemental briefing, to oral argument suggests the likeliest result – in other words, do affirmances or reversals consistently take longer?

In Table 1160, we report the lag times from end of party briefing to oral argument, divided by civil

In previous posts, we’ve suggested that the period from the end of amicus/supplemental briefing to the oral argument is a reasonable proxy for the Court’s decisional period.  So, if we revisit the data, divided by affirmances, reversals and split decisions (partly affirmed, partly reversed) – can we predict the result based on the wait from

Today, we’re reviewing the data for the average lag time between oral argument and decision in civil cases at the Supreme Court.

During the 1990s, the average time increased significantly.  In 1990, there was an average of 61.56 days’ wait from argument to decision.  That dropped to 59.23 (1991), 56.42 (1992) and 59.26 (1993), before

Today, we reach a critical milestone in civil litigation at the Supreme Court: the average lag time from the last brief – regardless of whether it’s a party reply brief, an amicus brief or a supplemental brief – to the oral argument.  Because of California’s rule that cases must be decided within ninety days following