Last time, we looked at public entities' winning percentage in civil cases at the California Supreme Court between 1994 and 2005. Today, we look at the second half of our study period – how did public entities fare between 2006 and 2016?
Public entities have done even better during these years than they had in our earlier period. Only once in the eleven years between 2006 and 2016 did either public entity petitioners or respondents fall below a winning percentage of 50%. In 2006, public entity petitioners won 75% of their cases, while respondents won 52.38%. In 2007, petitioners won three-quarters of their cases, while respondents won sixty percent. In 2008, public entity petitioners won 71.43% of their cases, while respondents won half of theirs. In 2009, public entities won five cases as petitioner, with one partial affirmance/reversal, while respondents won only 55.56% of their cases. In 2010, the sides were roughly equal – public entity petitioners won 55.56% of their cases, while respondents won 57.14%. For 2011, public entities won three quarters of their cases, while respondents evenly split theirs. In 2012, petitioners won five cases with one split decision, while respondents won 83.33% of theirs.
Between 2013 and 2015, the Court granted relatively few petitions filed by public entities. In 2013, public entity petitioners lost both of their cases. Respondents won half of their six cases. In 2014, petitioners won both their cases, while respondents won two-thirds of theirs. In 2015, petitioners won two-thirds of their cases. Respondents won half. Finally, in 2016, petitioners won seven of their nine cases for a winning percentage of 77.78%. But public entity respondents managed to win only one of their five cases last year for a winning percentage of 20%.
Join us back here Thursday as we turn to our next issue in our ongoing research – tracking the originating jurisdictions of the Court's civil cases.
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