Appellate Law

2008 California Court Statistics Report

By Greg May

Now available for PDF Download: 2008 Court Statistics Report: Statewide Caseload Trends, 1997-1998 through 2006-2007.  Always interesting to peruse.

The first thing to jump out at me from this year’s report (in my thus far rather hasty review): the median time statewide for civil appeals (from time of filing the notice of appeal to the time of disposition) was 432 days in 2006-2007.  That’s roughly 14 months.  And 90% of all civil appeals are disposed of within 680 days, or about 22 months.  These are statewide numbers.  Some districts are better than others.

I may be wrong, but I think there is a general impression among many clients (and perhaps some trial lawyers) that appeals usually take much, much longer.  Clients dissuaded from pursuing or fighting an appeal by what they think will be “years” of more legal wrangling should think twice.

Hat tip re the report: Ben Shatz, who clues you in to some other statistical tidbits.

Full post as published by The California Blog of Appeal on September 04, 2008 (boomark / email).