Last time, we showed that for the most part since 1990, anywhere from twenty to forty-five percent of the Court's civil decisions have arisen from unpublished decisions at the Court of Appeal. This time we're looking at the Court's criminal docket.
Unpublished Court of Appeal decisions are far from the exception in criminal cases – they're the rule. In 1991, 91.25% of the Court's criminal decisions were unpublished below. That fell to 70% by 1993. Two years later, the unpublished portion was 81.63%, but after that, it settled in for the most part in the 45-65% range. In 1999 and 2000, the unpublished portion was 45.83% and 49.09%. That rose to 58.73% in 2003, 58.9% in 2004 and 59.02% in 2005. It rose to 61.64% in 2010 and 70.59% in 2011, but fell back for several years after that: 51.95% in 2012, 64% in 2013, 61.82% in 2014, 54.55% in 2015, 59.62% in 2016 and 45.24% in 2017. In 2018, 64% of the Court's criminal decisions were unpublished below. In 2019, 83.33% were. So far in 2020, 61.54% of the Court's criminal decisions were unpublished below.
Join us back here next week as we address another bit of conventional wisdom about Supreme Court review.
Image courtesy of Pixabay by mbraun0223 (no changes).
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
