A reader, who prefers anonymity, inquired recently about reversal rates for court of appeals judges.  His interest extended beyond summary figures from the four court of appeals districts, he explained, for he was curious to learn how frequently the supreme court affirmed or reversed individual judges.  While the court’s website does provide some information for the districts, I am not aware of reports on how the supreme court appraised the votes of each judge separately.  So, let’s find out.[Continue Reading…]

These tables are derived from information contained in 52 Wisconsin Supreme Court decisions filed between September 1, 2021, and the end of the court’s term in the summer of 2022.  The total of 52 decisions omits orders pertaining to various motions, petitions, and disciplinary matters involving lawyers and judges. 

Also excluded are (1) Timothy Rave v. SVA Healthcare Services, LLC (dismissed as moot); (2) State v. Nhia Lee and James Cobb v. Gary A. King (dismissed as improvidently granted); and (3) State v. Manuel Garcia and Jama I. Jama v. Jason C. Gonzalez (which resulted in 3-3 per curiam decisions).

When two cases were consolidated and decided with a single decision, they are counted as only one.

The tables are available as a complete set and by individual topic according to the subsets listed below.

Four-to-Three Decisions
Decisions Arranged by Vote Split
Frequency of Justices in the Majority
Distribution of Opinion Authorship
Frequency of Agreement Between Pairs of Justices
Average Time Between Oral Argument and Opinions Authored by Each Justice
Number of Oral Arguments Presented by Individual Firms and Agencies

Today we’ll continue our assessment of the 2021-22 term with summaries of the outcomes in four areas of interest: (1) the length of decisions; (2) the number of concurrences and dissents; (3) the number of days between oral argument and decision filing; and (4) the frequency of fractured decisions.[Continue Reading…]

Yesterday’s post prompted an eminent Wisconsin attorney to contact me with an objection to the use of the terms “liberal” and “conservative” to characterize justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.  Here are the portions of his argument that I can quote while shielding his identity:[Continue Reading…]

With the final substantive decision of the term now published, we can begin our annual statistical assessment of the justices’ labors.  Today we’ll focus on the number of decisions, the issue of polarization, and Justice Hagedorn’s sway—and then take up a variety of other topics in the next week or two.[Continue Reading…]

The past few days delivered more points to the league than any previous week of season.  Leading the way were the Writs with 27 points, followed by the Waivers (20 points), the Gavels of the State Public Defender’s Office (15 points), and the Affirmed (9 points).  A number of individual firms scored multiple times, as detailed below.[Continue Reading…]

Although the court’s term is said to end on June 30, decisions commonly trickle (and sometimes pour) out well into July.  Two readers, wondering if their cases still have a chance to be decided this term, have asked how frequently the court has filed decisions long past June 30.  As the question may also have occurred to others, let’s take a look at the court’s track record in this regard over the last two decades.  We’ll focus on (1) the number of decisions filed after June 30 each term, (2) the percentage that this number represented of all the decisions that term, and (3) the filing date of the term’s concluding decision.[Continue Reading…]

This week’s flurry of decisions nourished all four teams, led by the Waivers with 18 points from Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren (for a brief and favorable outcome in Friends of the Black River Forest v. DNR and a brief, oral argument, and favorable outcome in Wisconsin Property Tax Consultants, Inc. v. Wisconsin Department of Revenue) and one point from Hawks Quindel (for an amicus brief in Joshua L. Kaul v. Frederick Prehn). 

Next came the Gavels of the State Public Defender’s Office with 10 points (for briefs and oral arguments in State v. X.S. and State v. Richard Michael Arrington), followed by the Writs with seven points (for a brief and oral argument from Pines Bach in Friends of the Black River Forest, an amicus brief from Pines Bach in Kaul, and an amicus brief from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty in Wisconsin Property Tax Consultants).  Even the Affirmed appeared on the score card with a point from Stafford Rosenbaum for an amicus brief in Kaul.

Click here for the updated standings.

This week’s decisions rewarded the Affirmed with 10 points—five from O’Neil, Cannon, Hollman, DeJong & Laing for a brief and oral argument in Great Lakes Excavating, Inc. v. Dollar Tree Stores, Inc. and five from Foley & Lardner for a brief and oral argument in Container Life Cycle Management, LLC v. DNR.  However, the total was not enough to overtake the third-place Gavels of the State Public Defender’s Office, who added two points for an amicus brief and oral argument in Sauk County v. S. A. M.  The same case also provided seven points to the first-place Waivers, earned by von Briesen & Roper for a brief, oral argument, and partially-favorable outcome.

Click here for the complete standings.

These tables are derived from information contained in 207 Wisconsin Supreme Court decisions that were turned up in a Nexis Uni search for decisions filed between September 1, 1947, and August 31, 1948.  The total of 207 decisions does not include various orders pertaining to petitions, motions, applications, and disciplinary matters involving lawyers and judges. [Continue Reading…]