Civil Justice Survey of State Courts, Trials on Appeal (CJSSCTA) will provide detailed statistical information on civil cases adjudicated at the appellate level in state courts. CJSSCTA will collect information from court records on individual civil trials that were appealed to a state intermediate appellate court and/or court of last resort. The types of information collected will include the types of civil cases appealed after trial to an intermediate appellate court or court of last resort, the impact of the appellate process on trial court outcomes, the extent that appellate claims are dismissed or withdrawn before being decided on the merits, the types of legal issues raised on appeal, the number of appeals ending in a published opinion, and the rate of judicial dissent at the appellate level. In addition, the CJSSCTA will examine the flow of civil appeals from intermediate appellate courts to courts of last resort. Information will be collected on the number of cases that go through both levels of appellate review and the effect of courts of last resort on litigation outcomes. The survey will also collect aggregate count information on the number of appeals referred to and settled through a court annexed alternative dispute resolution (ADR) program.
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The Civil Justice Survey of State Courts, Trials on Appeal (CJSSCTA) will be based on those 8,872 general civil trials concluded in the CJSSC counties that were appealed to an intermediate appellate court or court of last resort. Preliminary data show the litigants filing a notice of appeal in 1,500 tort, contract, and real property trials in approximately 65 separate courts of appeal in 36 states. The study’s plan is to track every general civil case concluded by bench or jury trial that was subsequently appealed to an intermediate appellate court or court of last resort.
Since the CJSSCTA is based on a national sample of civil trials, it will be capable of providing national estimates of the disposition of civil cases from the trial to the appellate courts. Overall, the project will have the capacity to provide national estimates on the rates of appeal and the levels of attrition civil cases experience in the appellate process. In addition, this project will highlight the rates that civil trials concluded in the national sample are affirmed, modified or reversed on appeal and the likelihood that the appeal will generate further activity in state supreme courts.
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