2014 COURT STATISTICS REPORT Statewide Caseload Trends

2014 COURT STATISTICS REPORT

Statewide Caseload Trends

2003?2004 Through 2012?2013

2014 COURT STATISTICS REPORT

Statewide Caseload Trends

2003?2004 Through 2012?2013

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This report is available on the California Courts website: courts.12941.htm#id7495

JUDICIAL COUNCIL OF CALIFORNIA

Steven Jahr Administrative Director

Curtis L. Child Chief Operating Officer Operations and Programs Division

Court Operations Services

Donna S. Hershkowitz Director

Office of Court Research

Leah Rose-Goodwin Manager

Chris Belloli Supervising Research Analyst

Jennifer Chow Research Analyst

Cheryl King Research Analyst

Jens Zeschk y Research Analyst

Judicial Council Support

Christine Miklas Senior Editor

PREFACE

Court Statistics Report

The Court Statistics Report (CSR) is published annually by the Judicial Council of California and is designed to fulfill the provisions of article VI, section 6 of the California Constitution, which requires the Judicial Council to survey the condition and business of the California courts. The CSR combines 10-year statewide summaries of superior court filings and dispositions with similar workload indicators for the California Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal. The 2014 CSR also provides more detailed information on filings and dispositions in the individual superior courts for the most recent fiscal year for which data are available, 2012?2013.

Caseload Data and Court Workload

California's court system is the largest in the world and serves a population of more than 38 million people-- about 12 percent of the total U.S. population--and more than 2,000 judicial officers and approximately 19,000 court employees statewide address the full range of cases heard each year. The vast majority of cases in the California courts begin in one of the 58 superior, or trial, courts, which reside in each of the state's 58 counties. With more than 500 court buildings throughout the state, these courts hear both civil and criminal cases as well as family, probate, mental health, juvenile, and traffic cases.

The data published in the Court Statistics Report is used by the judicial branch in policy development, program evaluation, performance management, and in workload analysis to measure judicial and court staff resource needs in California. Because different types of cases require different amounts of judicial and staff resources, a weighted caseload approach is the standard method, nationwide, to estimate the workload and resource needs of the courts. Weighted caseload distinguishes between different categories of filings so that the resources required to process a felony case, for example, are recognized as being much greater than the resources required to process a traffic infraction. As the mix or composition of cases change over time, a weighted caseload approach is needed to assess the impact of caseload trends on court workload. The Judicial Council has adopted caseweights for two workload models used by the judicial branch--the Judicial Workload Assessment and the Resource Assessment Study (RAS) model.

With the introduction of a new budget development and allocation process for the trial courts in 2013, the data published in the Court Statistics Report is being used by the judicial branch for a critically important new purpose. The Judicial Council adopted the Workload-based Allocation and Funding Methodology, or WAFM, which uses the Resource Assessment Model (RAS) and other workload factors in a new budget development process that alters baseline funding for most trial courts based on court workload.

Summary of 2014 Court Statistics Report

A summary of the caseload data in the 2014 CSR for the California Supreme Court, Courts of Appeal, and Superior Courts for fiscal year 2012?2013 are as follows:

Supreme Court The Supreme Court issued 94 written opinions during the year. Filings totaled 7,813, and dispositions totaled 8,269. Automatic appeals arising out of judgments of death totaled 13 cases, and the court disposed of 21 such appeals by written opinion.

 The Supreme Court ordered 16 Court of Appeal opinions depublished in this fiscal year.

Courts of Appeal Total contested matters for the Courts of Appeal totaled 20,391 made up of 13,020 records of appeal and 7,371 original proceedings. Dispositions in the Courts of Appeal totaled 22,092. Of these dispositions, 14,778 were appeals, and 7,314 were original proceedings. Dispositions of appeals by written opinion totaled 9,429, appeals disposed of without written opinion totaled 3,426, and appeals disposed of without a record filed totaled 1,923. Dispositions of original proceedings by written opinion totaled 470, and original proceedings disposed of without written opinion totaled 6,844. Statewide, 9 percent of Court of Appeal majority opinions were published.

Superior Courts In FY 2012-13, over 7.7 million cases were filed statewide in the Superior Courts. The CSR organizes all the cases filed in the courts in four main case categories--Civil; Criminal; Family and Juvenile; Probate, Mental Health, Appeals, Habeas. The case filing totals for the individual case types reported by the courts for FY 2012-13 are as follows:

Civil: The civil case category is made up of unlimited civil, limited civil, and small claims matters. Civil unlimited cases are matters where the petitioner is seeking more than $25,000. There were 199,537 unlimited civil cases filed in the courts. Limited civil filings are cases where the petitioner is seeking $25,000 or less. Limited civil cases totaled 554,858 statewide. Small claims filings are cases where the petitioner is seeking $10,000 or less and is not represented by counsel. A total of 168,063 small claims cases were filed statewide.

Criminal: The criminal case category is made up of felonies, misdemeanors, and infractions. The filing totals for the individual case types are as follows: felony filings represented 260,461 cases, misdemeanor filings totaled 926,169 cases, and infraction filings accounted for 5,050,151 cases.

Family and Juvenile: Marital filings (dissolutions, legal separations and nullities) accounted for 140,180 cases and other family law filings (e.g. paternity, child support) totaled 248,907 cases. Juvenile delinquency filings totaled 52,732 cases and juvenile dependency filings totaled 44,882 cases.

Probate, Mental Health, Appeals, and Habeas: The filing totals for the individual case types are as follows: probate filings totaled 41,419 cases; mental health filings totaled 25,013 cases; civil and criminal appeal filings totaled 5,242 cases; and criminal habeas corpus filings totaled 8,411 cases.

The largest changes in statewide filings for Superior Courts from the previous year are in limited jurisdiction case types--misdemeanors and infractions in the criminal case category and small claims and limited civil in the civil case category. Limited jurisdiction cases tend to be, on average, much less complex and resourceintensive for courts than unlimited jurisdiction case types such as felonies, civil torts, juvenile, probate, and mental health. Several of the most complex types of cases filed in the courts had an increase in filings from the previous year, which include the following case types: Felony, Personal Injury/Property Damage/Wrongful Death (PI/PD/WD), Juvenile Dependency, Probate, and Mental Health.

CONTENTS

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi The California Court System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii

SUPREME COURT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Total Filings and Dispositions............................................................................................................... 3 Figure 1 Total Filings........................................................................................................... 3 Figure 2 Total Dispositions ................................................................................................. 3

Filings and Dispositions: Summary...................................................................................................... 4 Figure 3 Petitions for Review.............................................................................................. 4 Figure 4 Original Proceedings ............................................................................................ 4 Figure 5 Automatic Appeals................................................................................................ 4 Figure 6 Habeas Corpus Related To Automatic Appeals .................................................. 4 Figure 7 State Bar Matters ................................................................................................. 4

Data for Figures 3?7: Filings and Dispositions: Summary ................................................................. 5 Filings and Dispositions: Petitions for Review..................................................................................... 6

Figure 8 Total Petitions for Review .................................................................................... 6 Figure 9 Civil Total............................................................................................................... 6 Figure 9a Civil Appeals.......................................................................................................... 6 Figure 9b Civil Writs .............................................................................................................. 6 Figure 10 Criminal Total........................................................................................................ 6 Figure 10a Criminal Appeals................................................................................................... 6 Figure 10b Criminal Habeas Corpus ...................................................................................... 6 Figure 10c Criminal Other Writs ............................................................................................. 6 Data for Figures 8?10c: Filings and Dispositions: Petitions for Review............................................ 7 Summary of Actions on Petitions for Review....................................................................................... 8 Table 1 Summary of Actions on Petitions for Review ...................................................... 8 Filings and Dispositions: Original Proceedings ................................................................................... 9 Figure 11 Total Original Proceedings ................................................................................... 9 Figure 12 Civil Total............................................................................................................... 9 Figure 13 Criminal Total........................................................................................................ 9 Figure 13a Criminal Habeas Corpus ...................................................................................... 9 Figure 13b Criminal Other Writs ............................................................................................. 9 Data for Figures 11?13b: Filings and Dispositions: Original Proceedings...................................... 10 State Bar Matters Filed....................................................................................................................... 11 Figure 14 Total State Bar Matters Filed............................................................................. 11

Table 2 Types of State Bar Matters Filed ....................................................................... 11

Business Transacted .......................................................................................................................... 12 Figure 15 Written Opinions ................................................................................................. 12 Figure 16 Original Proceedings .......................................................................................... 12 Figure 17 Petitions for Review ? Granted.......................................................................... 12 Figure 18 Petitions for Review ? Denied ........................................................................... 12 Figure 19 Petitions for Review ? Percent Granted............................................................ 12 Figure 20 Rehearings ? Granted........................................................................................ 12 Figure 21 Rehearings ? Denied ......................................................................................... 12 Figure 22 Executive Clemency Applications ...................................................................... 12

Data for Figures 15-22: Business Transacted .................................................................................. 13

Court of Appeal Opinions Ordered Depublished by the Supreme Court, Fiscal Years 1994?95 through 2012?13......................................................................................... 14

Figure 23 Depublished Opinions ........................................................................................ 14

Data for Figure 23: Court of Appeal Opinions Ordered Depublished by the Supreme Court ......... 15

Capital Cases in Which the Record Was Not Certified for Completeness Within 90 Days, and for Accuracy Within 120 Days ......................................................................... 16

Table 3 ................................................................................................................................... 16

COURTS OF APPEAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Performance Indicator Data ............................................................................................................... 19 Table 1 Performance Indicator Data .............................................................................. 19 Figure 1 Ratio of Pending Fully Briefed Appeals per 100 Appeals Disposed of by Written Opinion ......................................................................... 20 Figure 2 Pending Fully Briefed Appeals per Authorized Justice ..................................... 20 Figure 3 Majority Opinions per Judge Equivalent............................................................ 20

Caseload Comparisons....................................................................................................................... 21 Table 2 Caseload Comparisons ...................................................................................... 21 Figure 4 Pending Appeals: Caseload Comparison per Authorized Justice .................... 22 Figure 5 Filings and Dispositions: Caseload Comparison per Authorized Justice ........ 22

Summary of Filings ............................................................................................................................. 23 Figure 6 Total Contested Matters .................................................................................... 23 Figure 7 Total Contested Matters per Authorized Justice .............................................. 23

Record of Appeal Filings ..................................................................................................................... 24 Figure 8 All Districts .......................................................................................................... 24 Figure 9 First District......................................................................................................... 24 Figure 10 Second District ................................................................................................... 24 Figure 11 Third District ....................................................................................................... 24 Figure 12 Fourth District ..................................................................................................... 24

Figure 13 Fifth District ........................................................................................................ 24 Figure 14 Sixth District........................................................................................................ 24

Original Proceedings Filings ............................................................................................................... 25 Figure 15 All Districts .......................................................................................................... 25 Figure 16 First District......................................................................................................... 25 Figure 17 Second District ................................................................................................... 25 Figure 18 Third District ....................................................................................................... 25 Figure 19 Fourth District ..................................................................................................... 25 Figure 20 Fifth District ........................................................................................................ 25 Figure 21 Sixth District........................................................................................................ 25

Appeals Disposed of by Written Opinion ........................................................................................... 26 Figure 22 Total Appeals ...................................................................................................... 26 Figure 23 Criminal Appeals by Defendants ....................................................................... 26 Figure 24 Criminal Appeals by Prosecution ....................................................................... 26 Figure 25 Civil Appeals........................................................................................................ 26 Figure 26 Juvenile Appeals (Criminal Violation) ................................................................ 26 Figure 27 Other Juvenile Appeals....................................................................................... 26

Percentage of Majority Opinions Published ...................................................................................... 27 Figure 28 Total Appeals ...................................................................................................... 27 Figure 29 Criminal Appeals................................................................................................. 27 Figure 30 Civil Appeals........................................................................................................ 27 Figure 31 Juvenile Appeals ................................................................................................. 27 Figure 32 Original Proceedings .......................................................................................... 27

Civil Appeals: Time From Notice of Appeal to Filing Opinion ........................................................... 28 Figure 33 90th Percentile and Median .............................................................................. 28

Criminal Appeals: Time From Notice of Appeal to Filing Opinion .................................................... 29 Figure 34 90th Percentile and Median .............................................................................. 29

Summary of Filings and Dispositions................................................................................................. 30 Table 3 ............................................................................................................................. 30

Summary of Filings ............................................................................................................................. 31 Table 4 ............................................................................................................................. 31

Appeals--Method of Disposition......................................................................................................... 32 Table 5 ............................................................................................................................. 32

Dispositions of Original Proceedings ................................................................................................. 33 Table 6 ............................................................................................................................. 33

Opinions Written ............................................................................................................................. 34 Table 7 ............................................................................................................................. 34

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