End of Term stats

The Wall St. Journal has Justice Kagan Won 70% of the Time - Thomas and Alito had the majority in only 62% of non-unanimous cases.

Here’s a figure that might surprise: Justice Elena Kagan, the Supreme Court’s leading liberal, was in the majority of 70% of this term’s non-unanimous outcomes. To compare, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, stout conservatives, were each at 62%, tied with Justice Sonia Sotomayor. They were a tick above Justice Neil Gorsuch’s 61%.
That’s according to the end-of-term statistics compiled by the website SCOTUSblog.

And see: Former DOJ, Big Law Appellate Attorneys Join Anti-Trump Group Democracy Forward | Law.com & Progressive Legal Group Hires Top Appellate Lawyers (2)

And don't miss: SUPERIOR COURT OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY ANNOUNCES OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF NEW, COMPLETELY REDESIGNED, USERCENTRIC WEBSITE

And: San Bernardino Superior Court Unveils Redesigned Website | Superior Court of California

Those craving some appealability decisions should see a couple unpubs today, here and here.

Fed Stats out!

The annual fed courts stats report is available!

Judicial Business 2024 -- This report presents statistics on the work of the federal Judiciary for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024, comparing data for this year with data for prior years and, when possible, explaining increases or decreases in caseloads.

U.S. Courts of Appeals

• Filings in the regional courts of appeals dropped less than 1 percent to 39,788 in fiscal year 2024.
• Filings by pro se litigants, which accounted for 48 percent of new cases, increased 3 percent to 19,101.
• Civil appeals fell 2 percent to 21,270.
• Criminal appeals rose 4 percent to 10,067.

Table B-4A shows that civil appeals in the 9th Circuit are the slowest from filing of notice of appeal to decision, at 13.6 months (cf. clocking in at the fastest are the 5th, 6th, and 8th Circuits, all at 9.7 months).

Table B-10 shows 24.6% of 9th Circuit appeals get oral argument (cf. 3d Cir. at 12.7% and D.C. Cir. at 48.9%)

And see: Judiciary Seeks 71 Judgeships to Meet Growing Caseloads -- The Judicial Conference of the United States today agreed to recommend to Congress the creation of new district and court of appeals judgeships as the Judiciary faces a worsening shortage of Article III judges and caseloads continue to mount. Approved by the federal Judiciary’s national policy-making body at its biannual meeting in Washington, the Judiciary asked Congress to create two judgeships in the courts of appeals and 69 judgeships in district courts, where the need is greatest.

Law360 has Clerks May Seek Political Jobs On 'Case-By-Case Basis' -- Individual federal judges may determine whether their clerks may seek political posts while employed by the judiciary, the Judicial Conference of the United States' Committee on Codes of Conduct now recommends, months after issuing guidance advising clerks to hold off seeking such roles until their clerkships end.

2025 CA Court Stats Report

 2025 COURT STATISTICS REPORT Statewide Caseload Trends 2014–15 Through 2023–24

Supreme Court
• The Supreme Court issued 52 written opinions during the year.
• Filings totaled 4,944, and dispositions totaled 4,825.
• Automatic appeals arising out of judgments of death totaled 4 cases, and the court disposed of 2 such appeals by written opinion.
• The Supreme Court ordered 11 Court of Appeal opinions depublished in this fiscal year.

PFR Outcomes. For FY24, of 795 petitions for review from civil appeals, 21 were granted (32 G&H, 2 G&T) equaling a "7% grant rate." For civil writs, 243 PFRs filed, 8 granted, 8 G&H, 7 G&T, equaling a 9% "grant rate." (Table 1, pg. 17.)

For FY24, 1 of 3 requests to decide questions of state law were granted. Zero rehearing petitions were granted (which has been true every year going back to 2016). (pg. 25) In FY 24, 11 opinions were depublished, and 1 ordered published. (pg. 26) 

Courts of Appeal
• Total contested matters for the Courts of Appeal totaled 19,309, made up of 14,071 records of appeal and 5,238 original proceedings.
• Dispositions in the Courts of Appeal totaled 21,652. Of these dispositions, 16,366 were appeals and 5,286 were original proceedings.
• Dispositions of appeals by written opinion totaled 8,254; appeals disposed of without written opinion totaled 5,434, and appeals disposed of without a record filed totaled 2,678. Dispositions of original proceedings by written opinion totaled 276, and original proceedings disposed of without written opinion totaled 5,010.
• Statewide, 8 percent of Court of Appeal majority opinions were published.

Outcomes. For FY24 civil appeals, 80% affirmed; 16% reversed; 5% dismissed. (pg. 38) Publication rates for civil appeals overall was 14% (the rate for the 2d and 5th), with the 1st and 3d at 19% and the Fourth and Sixth at 11%.

Timing (from notice of appeal to opinion): The statewide median for civil appeals is 515 days. Fastest is 2/6 (437 days), slowest is 2/8 (645 days). (Fig. 33, pg. 40)

Fed stats are out!

Judiciary Releases Annual Report and Judicial Business Data

• The Judiciary today released its Annual Report providing detailed information about mission critical initiatives that advanced over the course of 2023, including efforts to enhance the court system’s physical and information technology security and modernize its IT systems.
• As in past years, the Judiciary also released an accompanying Judicial Business of the United States report, which provides statistical tables about federal caseloads by circuit, district, and offense, among other topics. It compares data for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2023, with data for prior years.

U.S. Courts of Appeals

• Filings in the regional courts of appeals dropped 4 percent to 39,987 in fiscal year 2023.
• Filings by pro se litigants, which accounted for 46 percent of new cases, decreased 4 percent to 18,517.
• Civil appeals fell 2 percent to 21,756.
• Criminal appeals declined 3 percent to 9,64

CJ Roberts' Annual Report

Chief Justice Roberts Issues 2023 Year-End Report -- Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., has issued his 2023 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary.

Appellate judges ... perform quintessentially human functions. Many appellate decisions turn on whether a lower court has abused its discretion, a standard that by its nature involves fact-specific gray areas. Others focus on open questions about how the law should develop in new areas. AI is based largely on existing information, which can inform but not make such decisions.

In October Term 2022, the number of cases filed in the Supreme Court fell by 15 percent compared to the prior year. For the 12-month period ending September 30, 2023, the number of cases filed in the U.S. courts of appeals declined by four percent.

NLJ has Chief Justice Roberts: AI Won't Replace Human Judges -- "As 2023 draws to a close with breathless predictions about the future of Artificial Intelligence, some may wonder whether judges are about to become obsolete," Roberts wrote in his annual year-end report. "I am sure we are not — but equally confident that technological changes will continue to transform our work."

Closer to home, don't miss the dissent in this 2/5 anti-slapp unpub here.

9th Cir. 2022 Annual Report

The 2022 9th Circuit Annual Report is now available here.

• Our court of appeals continued to be the nation’s busiest federal appellate court, accounting for 20.5% of all new appeals nationally, with 8,559 appeals, down 9.8% from fiscal year 2021.
• Despite the continued challenges presented by the ongoing restrictions imposed by the pandemic; I am pleased to report that the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit continued to account for over 20% of the entire federal appellate caseload in the nation.
• the steady pace of judicial appointments continued through December. We extend a warm welcome to new judges appointed in 2022—Circuit Judges Gabriel P. Sanchez, Holly A. Thomas, Roopali H. Desai and Salvador Mendoza, Jr.
• The Ninth Circuit’s Fairness Committee resumed their efforts to increase law clerk and magistrate judge diversity.
• The Appellate Lawyer Representatives conducted several meetings throughout the year and provided the opportunity for circuit judges to learn about key practice-related issues.

2023 CA Stats Report

The Judicial Council has posted its 2023 Court Statistics Report Statewide Caseload Trends 2012–13 Through 2021–22. Summary of 2023 Court Statistics Report -- Caseload data for the California Supreme Court, Courts of Appeal, and superior courts for fiscal year 2021–22 is summarized below:

Supreme Court

• The Supreme Court issued 49 written opinions.
• Filings totaled 5,665, and dispositions totaled 5,778.
• There were 4 automatic appeals arising out of judgments of death, and the court disposed of 16 such appeals by written opinion.
• The Supreme Court ordered 19 Court of Appeal opinions depublished. (Cf. this was 28 in FY21)

5% of petitions for review in civil appeals were "granted" (defined as granted, granted & held, and granted & transferred) (actually 4.98%). Looking only at pure grants, the figure is only 2.88%

As has been true since FY2016, the number of rehearings granted is zero.

Courts of Appeal
• Contested matters in the Courts of Appeal totaled 16,308, including 10,464 records of appeal and 5,844 original proceedings.
• Dispositions in the Courts of Appeal totaled 20,117. Of these dispositions, 14,168 were appeals and 5,949 were original proceedings.
• Dispositions of appeals by written opinion totaled 8,306, appeals disposed of without written opinion totaled 3,494, and appeals disposed of without a record filed totaled 2,368. Dispositions of original proceedings by written opinion totaled 325, and original proceedings disposed of without written opinion totaled 5,624.
• Statewide, 10 percent of Court of Appeal majority opinions were published.

For civil appeals (fig. 33), the top 5 fastest courts are 2/6, 4/1, 4/3, 1/4, and 1/1; the slowest are 6th, 3d, 5th, 4/2, and 2/5.

As for outcomes in civil appeals, the stats show 5% are dismissed (the same percentage for the prior two years as well); 17% are reversed (again the same figure for the prior two years as well); and 79% are affirmed.

As for publication, the 1st has the highest rate in civil appeals, at 24% (3d is at 22%) and the lowest is the 5th (13%) (the 6th is at 15%).

Law360 has Larry Ebner's Federal Judge's Amici Invitation Is A Good Idea, With Caveats

Fed Stats out now!

Judiciary’s 2022 Annual Report and Statistics Now Available

According to Table B-4, the median time from appeal to opinion in the 9th Circuit is 13.2 months -- but that's not the slowest! The 1st Circuit is at 14 months. (The fastest is the 8th Circuit at 4.6 months.)

Table B-4A shows the median time for civil appeals in the 9th Circuit is 12.6 months.

Table B-5 shows that the 9th Circuit civil appeal reversal rate is 15%

LASC Biennial Report

 

The Court is pleased to announce the publishing of the 2021 - 2022 Biennial Report, which details the Court’s collective accomplishments over the past two years. Despite the numerous and ongoing challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Court implemented and expedited various programs, technology platforms and services to increase and expand access to justice. Much of this work is memorialized in the Report. Thank you, Sherri R. Carter, Executive Officer/Clerk of Court.
Of particular note, see pages 32 and 40:

Appellate Division In 2021 and 2022, the Central Appeals Unit and Appellate Division focused on ensuring the safety of staff while continuing to serve the public and justice partners during the pandemic using pre-existing and newly developed technology. More than 1,100 people participated remotely in an appellate hearing from January 1, 2021, through July 31, 2022. In 2021, the Court developed and implemented the Appeals Tracking System (ATS). ATS streamlines the appeals process across all litigations. ATS also eliminates dependence on many of the hard-copy conventions previously required of appeals processing. It also expedites the delivery of appeals records for court and public review. ATS was awarded a 2021 National Association of Counties Achievement Award. 

Electronic Court of Appeals Records and Transcripts In August 2022, the Court developed and launched the Electronic Court of Appeals Records and Transcripts (eCART) software to replace the Transcript Assembly Program to prepare transcript and appeals records for the Court of Appeal. ECART is used to automate and streamline the appeals records and transcript process. Using modernization funding awarded by the JCC, the Court developed the new software to gather and transfer appeals records and transcripts for the Court of Appeal. ECART represents a new joint support/operational model, whereby the Court develops new technology and serves as the product owner, and the JCC deploys the product to other trial courts and provides support for the system. Developed and launched on time and under budget, 29 superior courts across California have implemented the software. In total, 22 trial courts have used eCART to submit a total of 186 transcripts to the Court of Appeal. In addition, the new system is assembling 1,115 case transcripts for transmission to the Court of Appeal.  

Of even more appellatey interest, today's DJ has CJP closes complaint against 3rd District justice, ‘no basis for action’ -- “They don’t tell me whether the letter concerns [former justices] Murray or Blease, whether they found no basis for disciplinary action or simply decided not to proceed further, or why it took them two years to decide to do nothing,” retired appellate attorney Jon Eisenberg said by email Monday. “Kafka comes to mind.”

2021 9th Cir. Annual Report posted!

The 2021 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Annual Report has been posted. It includes court caseload statistics and articles focusing on various initiatives undertaken by judges and court staff in 2021 when the global distribution of vaccines against COVID-19 began and the prospect of resuming normal routines seemed possible.

CSC Year in Review

The Cal Supreme Court has posted its Year in Review, highlighting key events and statistics from the 2021-2022 court year.

• The California Supreme Court issued 49 majority written opinions during the September 2021–August 2022 court year. (23 civil, 11 criminal, 15 death penalty)
• The court received 5,577 filings, including 3,294 petitions for review from California’s six appellate court districts, and resolved 5,819 filings, including 3,545 petitions for review.
• The court also debuted a new website, developed based on months of user input from attorneys, court staff, the media, and members of the public across the state. It features improved accessibility, including archives of oral argument webcasts and their related opinions organized by year.

Also see Judicial Mentorship Program for Appellate Courts Goes Statewide

And see here for 1/2 imposing frivolous appeal sanctions on client and counsel (in the amount of  $56,389.70 for respondent's attorney fees and costs).

This appeal’s “total lack of merit” is apparent. The only issue raised is whether the trial court abused its discretion by sanctioning [Appellant] on September 9.

(But no sanctions were imposed in a related appeal here.) 

CSC "decline in productivity"?

Today's DJ has Jon Eisenberg's What's Ailing The California Supreme Court? Its Productivity Has Plummeted.

• During 2011–2021, the court’s yearly opinion filings steadily declined from a high of 98 opinions in fiscal year 2010–2011 to a low of 59 opinions in fiscal year 2020–2021, with the median at 85 opinions. Compare those numbers with 2000–2010, when the court’s yearly opinion filings ranged from a high of 125 opinions to a low of 96 opinions, with the median at 116 opinions. Across all three measures – highest, lowest, and median – the court’s productivity in 2011–2021 dropped considerably.
• Grants of petitions for review likewise fell, from a median of 86 grants in 2000–2010 to a median of just 59 grants in 2011–2021. The fall from the high of 136 grants in fiscal year 2001–2002 to 41 grants in fiscal year 2020–2021 was 70%.
• Yet the court has been taking substantially longer to decide cases.
• The Judicial Council has not yet published statistics for fiscal year 2021–2022, but opinion production for that period is easily gleaned from Westlaw. The court produced a scant 49 opinions – the court’s worst performance since at least 1987, the earliest year accounted for in the Court Statistics Reports.
• Next year will bring a change in the California Supreme Court’s leadership. One of the new Chief Justice’s top priorities should be to restore the court’s productivity to previous levels.

Bloomberg Law has Supreme Court Justices Should Say Sorry Too --  US Supreme Court justices have committed ethical lapses unapologetically, says Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Court. He argues that the justices should be held to the same standard of conduct as other federal judges and should apologize for missteps.

• 

And on a lighter note, here's a fun headline: "Justices cite Judges" -- see p. 4, fn. 1 here (citing Judges 16:30).

2022 Court Stats out!

The 2022 Court Statistics Report on Statewide Caseload Trends is now available here!

Appellate highlights:

Supreme Court

• The Supreme Court issued 59 written opinions during the year. • Filings totaled 6,522, and dispositions totaled 6,311. • Automatic appeals arising out of judgments of death totaled 12 cases, and the court disposed of 22 such appeals by written opinion. • The Supreme Court ordered 28 Court of Appeal opinions depublished in this fiscal year.

16% of Petitions for review were granted overall. But only 5% in civil matters (5% civil appeals; 6% for civil writs). Criminal had a 20% grant rate (21% in criminal appeals, 8% for criminal writs, 15% for habeas corpus). Zero rehearings were granted (which is true for every year from 2012 to 2021, expect for one granted in 2015).

Courts of Appeal

• Total contested matters for the Courts of Appeal totaled 15,781, made up of 10,171 records of appeal and 5,610 original proceedings. • Dispositions in the Courts of Appeal totaled 20,159. Of these dispositions, 14,682 were appeals and 6,024 were original proceedings. • Dispositions of appeals by written opinion totaled 9,147, appeals disposed of without written opinion totaled 3,397, and appeals disposed of without a record filed totaled 2,137. Dispositions of original proceedings by written opinion totaled 301, and original proceedings disposed of without written opinion totaled 5,302. • Statewide, 9 percent of Court of Appeal majority opinions were published.

78% of civil appeals were affirmed; 17% reversed; 5% dismissed.

18.2% of civil appeals were published statewide (with the 1st Dist. at 26.2%, the 2d at 15.5%, 3d at 28%, 4th at 15.2%, Fifth at 14.8% and Sixth at 19.8%)

As for timing in civil appeals, the statewide median is 568 days: 2/6 is fastest with a median of 452 days from notice of appeal to opinion;  at the other end, the 6th is the slowest at 920 days, the 3d is at 905 days and the 5th at 791 days.

Fed Court Stats out!

Judiciary Releases Annual Report and Judicial Business 2021 In 2021, the Judiciary confronted uniquely trying times: The second straight year of the global pandemic, unanticipated spikes in caseloads, and cybersecurity threats to government technology systems. By finding innovative solutions to emerging problems, the Judiciary met these challenges while keeping vital ongoing initiatives on track, writes Judge Roslynn R. Mauskopf, the AO Director, in her Annual Report. The Judiciary also published Judicial Business for fiscal year 2021. Read more.

Courts of Appeals data

• Filings in the regional courts of appeals declined 8 percent to 44,546 in 2021.
• Filings by pro se litigants, which accounted for 48 percent of new cases, fell 9 percent to 21,423.
• Civil appeals dropped 9 percent to 23,256.
• Criminal appeals rose 10 percent to 10,625.

Ninth Circuit data

• Median time from notice of appeal to opinion - 13.1 months (compare w/the 2d Cir. at 14.5 and 1st Cir. at 13.8; the fastest is the 8th Cir. at 4.3) Table B-4
• For civil appeals, 13.5 months (Table B-4A)
• Reversal rate in private civil cases is 13.3% (Table B-5)

Cal 2022 Judicial Demographic Data is out

The 2022 Judicial Officer Demographic Data is now available here. The data basically shows Court of Appeal justices are 60% male; 70% white (5% Asian, 7% Hispanic/Latino, 12% Black, 5% other race + more than one race); and 80% Heterosexual (18% Non-responsive; 1% Lesbian; 1% Gay).

(The Gov's new release on this is here.)

And see Majority of California's Judicial Applicants Are Women, 2021 Report Finds. The DJ has Newsom reports high number of minority, women judge appointees.

Cal Supreme Court Year in Review

Just published: Year in Review: California Supreme Court, Highlights and key statistics from the 2020-2021 court year.

• A New Justice Takes the Bench
• The Work of the Court
• Remote Oral Arguments Continue
• Honoring Justice Cruz Reynoso
• An Alternative Pathway to Licensure
• Clarifying the Precedential Effect of Court of Appeal Opinions
• High Profile Cases
• Summary of Key Court Year Statistics

9th Cir. 2020 Annual Report

The Ninth Circuit has posted its 2020 Annual Report

• Nice memorial pages appear for Judges Farris and Fisher (pp. 19-22)
• Ninth Circuit Holds First Virtual En Banc Sessions (pp. 43-44)
• Stats are on pp. 60-63
• The Ninth Circuit continued to be the nation’s busiest federal appellate court, accounting for 21.6% of all new appeals nationally.
• The court’s overall reversal rate was 9.9%, compared to a national average of 8.8%. The reversal rate was 18.8% for criminal cases; 14.6% for civil cases involving the federal government and 13.7 for non-government civil cases; and 5.5% for administrative agency cases.
• In the Ninth Circuit in FY 2020, the median time interval from filing of a notice of appeal to final disposition was 12.5 months

Profile of the Legal Profession

The ABA released its 2021 ABA Profile of the Legal Profession report, 140 pages of statistics and trends covering demographics, judges, COVID-19, legal tech, law schools, etc. A few tidbits from the ABA Journal are:

• There were slightly more than 1.3 million active lawyers in the United States as of Jan. 1, 2021. This represented a decline of one-tenth of 1% compared with last year’s number; however, the report noted this was due to a decision by Vermont to count only residential lawyers in its official headcount.
• More than one-fourth of U.S. lawyers are in two states: New York (185,076) and California (167,709).
• One of every seven lawyers is a person of color. Slightly more than one-third of all lawyers (37%) are women. Both rates are about the same as last year.
• There are more than 114,000 law school students in the U.S. — the highest number since 2014. A majority (54%) of those students are women. There are also 25 law schools where women comprise 60% or more of the student body, but there are no law schools where men comprise 60% percent or more of the student population.
• For the 10th consecutive year, the number of men attending law school declined. But for the fourth consecutive year, the number of women attending law school rose.

State Stats are out!

 

The 2021 Court Statistics Report on Statewide Caseload Trends is now out and available here!

These stats come with this disclaimer: FISCAL YEAR 2019 -20 DATA WERE SIGNIFICANTLY IMPACTED DUE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AS COURTS OPERATIONS WERE LIMITED BETWEEN MARCH AND JUNE 2020.

Supreme Court

• The Supreme Court issued 78 written opinions during the year.

• Filings totaled 6,470, and dispositions totaled 6,417.

• Automatic appeals arising out of judgments of death totaled 5 cases, and the court disposed of 17 such appeals by written opinion.

• The Supreme Court ordered 26 Court of Appeal opinions depublished in this fiscal year. (See page 23)

11% of all petitions for review were granted. More specifically 4% for civil appeals and 13% for criminal appeals. See Table 1 on page 16 for details.

Courts of Appeal

• Total contested matters for the Courts of Appeal totaled 17,889, made up of 12,043 records of appeal and 5,846 original proceedings.

• Dispositions in the Courts of Appeal totaled 20,772. Of these dispositions, 14,748 were appeals and 6,024 were original proceedings.

• Dispositions of appeals by written opinion totaled 8,736, appeals disposed of without written opinion totaled 3,847, and appeals disposed of without a record filed totaled 2,256. Dispositions of original proceedings by written opinion totaled 338, and original proceedings disposed of without written opinion totaled 5,818.

• Statewide, 9 percent of Court of Appeal majority opinions were published.

Ventura (2/6) comes out on top for median civil appeal time at 480 days. The Statewide average is 567 days, with the Sixth in last place at 937 days (the 3d is second to last at 749 days, not that far behind the 5th at 738 days). (See Figure 33 on page 36.)

The Statewide average for publication of a civil appeal is 18%, with the First and Third most likely to publish (at 26%) and the Fourth least likely (at 14%). (See Fig. 30 on page 35.)

As for dispositions, the civil appeal affirmance rate dropped a point to 78%, the dismissal rate went up a point to 5%, and the reversal rate dropped a point to 17% (See Fig. 25 on page 34).

Fed Stats review

Table B-4 shows that the median time from the appellee's brief to oral argument (or submission w/o argument) in the Ninth Circuit is 11 months. To compare, the next longest time is 6.2 months in the 8th Circuit; the rest of the circuits are all below 5.4 months, with many in the 2 to 4 range.

Table B-4A shows that the median time for civil appeals in the 9th Circuit from last appellee's brief to oral arg (or submission) is 8.5 months. This is the slowest, with the 4th Circuit at 8.2 months, and other circuits ranging from 2.3 (1st) to 6.7 (8th), with most in the 2 to 5 month range.

Don't mind waiting, if it's for something good?!

Table B-5 shows a 13.7% reversal rate for civil appeals in the 9th Circuit.

Table B-12 shows a 93.3% unpublished rate for the 9th Circuit. The 4th is at 93.1%, the 11th is at 91.5%, the lowest is the D.C. Cir. with only 60.1% unpublished.