The latest Judicial Council Court Statistics Report contains a plethora of numbers relating to the work of all three levels of California’s judicial branch.  The report covers fiscal year 2018-2019, i.e., July 2018 through June 2019.  It says the “information is submitted to the California Legislature and used in numerous judicial branch reports.”

Not all the numbers for the Supreme Court are accurate, however, including two of the most watched:  how many cases the court agreed to hear and how many it put on hold.

The report says the court granted 14 petitions for review (3 civil and 11 criminal) and made 68 grant-and-hold orders (6 civil and 62 criminal) for the fiscal year.  (See pages 16 and 21 of the report.)

But At The Lectern has identified 47 grants of review (23 civil and 24 criminal) and 111 grant-and-hold orders (10 civil and 101 criminal) for fiscal year 2018-2019.  Additionally, we found seven cases the court agreed to hear on reference from the Ninth Circuit.  (We don’t know if the report intends to account for Ninth Circuit cases.)  For a list of the 47 review-granted cases and seven Ninth Circuit cases, see here.

At The Lectern provided its findings to the Judicial Council.  Merrill Balassone, a Council spokesperson, responded, “The data on Supreme Court petitions for review included in the 2020 Court Statistics Report counts only cases disposed within the time frame of the report (fiscal year 2018-2019, with data as of March 2020).  The court informally tracks pending cases for internal purposes.”  She further stated that, “for the 14 review grants in the report, the review was granted during fiscal year 2018-2019, however, the case may have been decided any time up until March 2020.”

The report says, “The Supreme Court sends the Judicial Council its annual case filing figures, which are reported here in summary form.”  Regarding numbers for all courts, the report warns that “[f]ilings data submitted by the courts tend to be more complete than disposition data” and it says that “courts may amend the data they submit to the Judicial Council should new, more detailed, or more complete information become available.”

If, as the report says, the statistics are submitted to the Legislature, legislators are getting a skewed picture that suggests the court is not working nearly as hard as it actually is.  Council spokesperson Balassone also said, “We are reviewing our process and considering changes to improve reporting for the 2021 Court Statistics Report.”