No decisions were filed this week–hence, no change in the standings.

Around this time in recent years, SCOWstats has ventured an estimate of the number of decisions that the justices would file once a term had run its course at the end of July.  Looming over the preparation of this year’s estimate is the question of whether the justices would rebound from their near-historic low of 45 decisions filed in 2019-20—and the answer is clearly “yes.”  They will not, however, reach the level of 60, which the following graph indicates is their approximate ceiling over the past decade.^[1][Continue Reading…]

This week’s decisions generated points for three teams—and shook up the standings in the process.  The Affirmed were the big winners, collecting 10 points from Kasdorf Lewis & Swietlik (for a brief, oral argument, and favorable outcome in Francis G. Graef v. Continental Indemnity Company) and five points from Conway, Olejniczak & Jerry (for a brief and oral argument in the same case).  On the strength of this showing, they shot far ahead of the Waivers into second place.  Not only did the idle Waivers watch the Affirmed fly past, they also found themselves one point behind the Citations, who added five points from Weiss Law Office for a brief and oral argument in David Stroede v. Society Insurance.  

Even the cellar-dwelling Writs moved into respectability with 10 points from Warshafsky, Rotter, Tarnoff & Bloch for a brief, oral argument, and favorable outcome in David Stroede v. Society Insurance.  When the dust settled at the end of the week, they were only three points back of the Waivers.

Click here for the complete, updated standings.

This week the Gavels of the State Public Defender’s Office picked up 10 points for a brief, oral argument, and favorable outcome in State v. Tavodess Matthews, enabling them to pad their lead early in the second half of the season.

Click here for the complete, updated standings.

Given that Fond du Lac County v. S.N.W. was dismissed as improvidently granted, none of the teams gained points from last week’s decisions—hence no change in the standings.

These tables are derived from information contained in 250 Wisconsin Supreme Court decisions that were turned up in a Nexis-Uni search for decisions filed between September 1, 1959, and August 31, 1960.  The total of 250 decisions does not include rulings arising from (1) disciplinary matters involving lawyers, and (2) various petitions, motions, applications and the like (generally disposed of without oral argument and in short per curiam decisions).  Also omitted are two deadlocked (3-3) per curiam decisions (Mahringer v. Knoeller and Barker v. Retail Credit Co.).

The tables are available as a complete set and by individual topic in 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

No decisions were filed this week–hence, no change in the standings.

This week’s decision in Country Visions Cooperative v. Archer-Daniels-Midland Company rewarded the Waivers with five points for a brief and oral argument by Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren.  Reinhart’s performance propelled the Waivers all the way from fourth place into second, one point clear of the Affirmed.

Click here for the complete, updated standings.

This week’s lone decision did not provide any points for fantasy-league teams–hence, no change in the standings.

So remarked an eminent appellate attorney recently, and such has indeed been the case to date in the most contentious supreme court decisions of the 2020-21 term.  This is glaringly obvious in Table 1, which shows how regularly each justice has voted with the majority in the seven 4-3 decisions filed as of April 13, 2021.  Justice Hagedorn’s vote has been essential in every one of these decisions—and in this regard no other justice is close.[Continue Reading…]