Saturday, June 27, 2020

Appellate Number Crunching

H&L's Scott Dixler and Sarah Hamill do a deep analytical dive and report in Law360 that: Calif. Employment Cases Actually Favor Summary Judgment:
We have reviewed approximately 130 appellate decisions evaluating employment discrimination and retaliation claims under California's Fair Employment and Housing Act, that were decided after Perry, and 99 of those cases affirmed summary judgment for the employer.
Only 31 reversed summary judgment for the employer. But only two of the 99 cases affirming summary judgment are published, while nine of the 31 cases reversing summary judgment are published.
This imbalance between published and unpublished opinions could create the misimpression that summary judgment remains disfavored in employment cases, as the courts in Nazir and Abed held.

For an interesting (yet rejected) argument about the inability to get an RT for an appeal, see here.