Litigation

Why I Want to Practice Plaintiff Animal Attack Law -- New Case Stats From Our Government

By Bruce Nye

The U.S. Justice Department has a "Bureau of Justice Statistics" that issues reports on civil bench and jury trials in state courts every four years.  The 2005 survey is just out, and it is full of all kinds of interesting nuggets about civil trials nationwide.

But the focus on this blawg is on California, and in that respect, there are some eye-openers.

• The City and County of San Francisco, world wide headquarters for CalBizLIt and the place where my office is located, had a population just over 750,000 in 2005 (although the number is probably down now) and saw a grand total of 121 bench and jury trials that year.  This seems about right, assuming they aren't including small claims appeals, defaults, etc., which I gather they are not.

• Alameda County, twelve miles across the bay, has a population of about 1.4 million, and had 176 trials.  This also seems about right.

• Los Angeles County, with almost 10 million souls, had 383 trials.

But now it gets really weird:

• Santa Clara County, home of Silicon Valley, had a grand total of 54 trials in one year.  44 were jury trials, 10 were bench trials.  This county presently has 89 judges and commissioners (court employees who also sometimes hear trials).  And they had .606 trials per judicial officer in 2005.

• As of today, Contra Costa County -- probably the largest Northern California suburban county, with well over a million people -- has 59 judges.  They tried a total of 29 civil cases, 18 by jury and 11 by bench trial.  The latter figure is important, because bench trials are usually much quicker, and judges typically hear other matters while they are also hearing bench trials, as there is no concern about inconveniencing a jury.  So, we've got less than 1/2 a jury trial per judge.

Please don't take the wrong message from this.  Although you'll hear out-of-state clients say otherwise, I think most of our state court judges are hard working, smart, diligent and underpaid.  But in all the hype about alternative dispute resolution, what happened to the good old TDR -- traditional dispute resolution? For better or for worse, it is becoming a thing of the past.

A few more California stats:  Median San Francisco jury verdict for winning plaintiffs:  $69,000.  Median Los Angeles jury verdict for winning plaintiffs:  $245,000.  Guess that's why they call one of their courthouses there "the bank."  But median bench trial judgment in San Francisco for winning plaintiffs:  $148,000.

And finally, some nationwide stats one who wins and who loses:

• Car crash plaintiffs win 64.3% of the time (although they don't often win much money, I'll venture);

• Asbestos plaintiffs win 64.3% of the time (no huge surprise there);

• Other product liability plaintiffs win 19.6% of the time (I'd love to see some Californiastats, although I bet they're pretty good for the defense also);

• Mortgage foreclosure plaintiffs win 89.4% of the time;
  

And animal attack plaintiffs win a thumping 75.2% of their cases.

Hat Tip to California Puntive Damages -- An Exemplary Blog

Late Update:  California Attorneys' Fees has a good update of the rest of the report here.

Full post as published by CalBizLit on October 30, 2008 (boomark / email).