Appeals Statistics

Before you decide whether to start or defend an appeal, you may want to consider the overall statistics. That said, the chances of any specific appeal succeeding depend on the merits of that case. There are no quotas that the courts apply. With that proviso, here are some numbers.

State Court Numbers

In the 2003-2004 court year – the most recent for which statistics are available – the California Court of Appeal affirmed in full 66% of cases it decided. A further 10% were affirmed with modification. The percentage of cases that were reversed was 21%. A further 3% of appeals were dismissed for some reason without being considered on the merits (this would include things like late or premature filings, or failure to file briefs).

In other words, about one in five of civil appeals succeeds in California, with a further one in 10 achieving some modification of the trial court outcome.

The figures for 2003-2004 are very typical of previous years. For example, the reversal rates in the previous two years were 21% and 20%, respectively.

The main trend in the California state appellate system has been an overall decline in the number of appeals. That is most likely caused, in large part, by the continuing rise of alternative means of dispute resolution, which displaces the trial court as the arbiter of disputes and, thus, cuts off access to the appellate system. (There is no appeal from an arbitration. And mediated settlements, by their very nature, involve a consensual resolution.)

The statewide median time from the filing of the appeal to the issuance of the written opinion was 433 days for civil appeals in 2003-2004, compared to 447 days in 2002-2003.

The source of the above statistics is the 2005 Court Statistics Report published by the Judicial Council of California.

Federal Court Numbers

Reversal rates in the Ninth Circuit – the federal appellate court covering California – are lower than in the California state courts. Putting aside cases that are disposed of without being considered on the merits, the civil reversal rate has lately been just 15% (this excludes prisoner cases that are filed as civil matters; however, it includes immigration cases that make up a sizeable portion of the federal appellate docket). Keep in mind that in the Ninth Circuit, only about 50% of the filed cases are even decided on their merits by a panel of judges. The remainder are dismissed by the Clerk or a panel of judges dealing with motions.

Unlike the California state courts, the Ninth Circuit has lately seen a sharp increase in its workload. This is in large part due to the burgeoning number of immigration cases. As a result, appeals to the Ninth Circuit are currently taking up to two years from start to finish.

Conclusion

If you are starting an appeal and find the reversal statistics unpromising, that doesn't mean that you should give up. It just means that you need to be sure that you work with a lawyer who will make the best possible effort. Half-hearted efforts have no business in an appeal.

If you are defending an appeal, the statistics should not lull you into complacency. You do not want your case to be one of the approximately one-in-five that, in state court, are reversed.