Thursday, December 22, 2011
Page 3
Report: Statewide Superior Court Filings Again Over 10 Million
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Statewide filings in the California superior courts remained over 10 million for the second consecutive year, resulting in a slight decrease from the prior fiscal year but still a 20 percent increase over the past decade, according to the Judicial Council’s 2011 Court Statistics Report.
The report provides detailed statewide caseload data from Sept. 1 2009 to Aug. 31, 2010, and 10-year trend data on a wide range of court business in the Supreme Court of California, the Courts of Appeal, and the superior courts in the state’s 58 counties.
Article VI, section 6 of the California Constitution requires the Judicial Council to survey the condition of business in the state courts and to report and make recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature.
During the 2009-2010 fiscal year, the state Supreme Court issued a total of 96 written opinions.
It received 9,562 filings, including 5,131 petitions seeking review from a Court of Appeal decision in an appeal or an original writ proceeding. The high court disposed of 9,439 matters.
Civil matters accounted for 1,225 of the petitions for review, and 3,906 arose from criminal cases. The court disposed of 1,244 civil petitions and 3,897 criminal petitions.
Of the 3,680 petitions seeking original writ relief filed, the court disposed of 3,548 of these matters. Civil matters accounted for 323 of these petitions, and criminal matters accounted for 3,357.
A total of 29 automatic appeals were filed with the court following a judgment of death, and the court disposed of 26 of these appeals by written opinion.
The court received 34 habeas corpus petitions related to automatic appeals and disposed of all them, along with 690 State Bar matters.
Four Court of Appeal opinions were also ordered depublished in this fiscal year. Statewide, nine percent of the Courts of Appeal opinions were published.
In the Courts of Appeal, contested matters totaled 22,515—including 13,738 records of appeal and 8,777 original proceedings.
Dispositions in the Courts of Appeal totaled 24,442. Of these dispositions, 15,524 were appeals, and 8,918 were original proceedings.
A total of 10,270 appeals were disposed of by written opinion and3,453 were disposed of without. Appeals disposed of without a record filed totaled 1,801.
Dispositions of original proceedings by written opinion totaled 609, and original proceedings disposed of without written opinion totaled 8,309.
The Court of Appeal for this district averaged 21 fully briefed appeals per 100 appeals disposed of by opinion in 2009-2010, which was the lowest ratio among the six appellate districts.
Superior court case filings across the state, in all case categories totaled 10,074,941, and dispositions totaled 8,782,281.
Civil filings totaled 1,152,926 and civil dispositions numbered 1,113,606, while criminal filings totaled 8,270,215 and criminal dispositions numbered 7,116,013.
Of these aggregate totals, juvenile matters accounted for 127,387 of the filings and 109,970 of the dispositions. Family law filings totaled 452,671 and dispositions of these matters numbered 383,547.
Filings and dispositions for all other case types—probate, mental health, appeals, criminal habeas corpus—numbered 71,742 and 59,145, respectively.
A total of 11,047 jury trials and 470,529 court trials were recorded across all case types.
Copyright 2011, Metropolitan News Company