This time, we’re reviewing the data on the Court’s tort docket for the years 2000 through 2009.  The Court reversed 70% of the tort decisions it reviewed in 2000.  The reversal rate then dipped for several years: 62.5% in 2001, 50% (2002), 55.6% (2003), 58.33% (2004), 50% (2005), 41.67% (2006), 42.86% (2007) and 57.14% in 2008 before rising to 87.5% in 2009.

Now we review the breakdown of the cases between defense wins from the Appellate Court and plaintiffs’ wins and compare the reversal rate for each.  Thirty-seven of these cases were won by defendants at the Appellate Court.  Sixty-five were won by the plaintiffs.  The reversal rate for defendants’ tort wins for the decade was only 45.95%.  Plaintiffs fared far worse; the reversal rate for the decade was 64.62%.  Plaintiffs had an especially hard time in 2000-2001 (81.82% reversal rate) and 2008-2009 (76.92% reversal rate).

Join us back here next time as we continue our look at the tort cases 2000-2009.

Image courtesy of Flickr by David Wilson (no changes).