Sedgwick Launches California Supreme Court Review

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - May 9, 2016) -  Sedgwick LLP launches its latest blog, the California Supreme Court Review (http://www.californiasupremecourtreview.com). Edited by Partner Kirk C. Jenkins of the Chicago office, it provides readers with quantitative insight into the work of the Supreme Court of California based on sophisticated scholarly techniques for understanding group decision making. Jenkins also edits and is principal author for the sister blog the Illinois Supreme Court Review.

"Kirk followed up his deep-dive into the Illinois Supreme Court with an equally ambitious and detailed look at California's high court," Sedgwick Chair Michael Healy said. "Appellate attorneys and court-watchers across the Golden State -- and those looking to California for the precedents often set there -- now have a wealth of data to sift through in determining how the court will rule and why."

The blog's content is derived from a data library of more than 1,600 civil, criminal and disciplinary opinions filed from 2000 to the end of 2015. This data has been analyzed by Jenkins and other Sedgwick professionals, yielding insights into various aspects of the court's operations and outcomes, including: origins of the court's civil and criminal dockets (e.g., final or interlocutory decisions, areas of law, geographic focuses); the impact of dissent and publication at the Court of Appeal on a litigant's chances for review; the court's evolving rate of unanimity; changes in the court's lag time from grant to decision and argument to decision; the justices' voting records, opinions and the frequency with which different combinations of justices vote similarly on various issues; and the impact and voting records of justices pro tem.

"California, much like Illinois, is a bellwether for the nation, exerting considerable influence on public policy. The California Supreme Court Review is designed to harness considerable data for use in identifying trends and predicting outcomes. While there is no set formula for determining a particular outcome, we see this marriage of rigorous data analytics and other academic techniques as cutting edge," said Jenkins. "Personally, despite my Chicago address, the bulk of my appellate practice occurs in California, so this data is extremely meaningful and relevant."

Jenkins chairs Sedgwick's Appellate Task Force. He has maintained an exclusively appellate practice for more than 20 years, serving as lead appellate counsel in more than 200 appeals and many additional interlocutory petitions in state and federal courts across the country. He has been selected by his peers for inclusion in Best Lawyers in America in appellate law each year since 2010 and is a long-time elected member of the American Law Institute and the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers. He is also editor of the Illinois Supreme Court Review and The Appellate Strategist blog. 

Sedgwick LLP provides trial, appellate, litigation management, counseling, risk management and transactional legal services to the world's leading companies. With offices in Austin, Chicago, Dallas, Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Kansas City, London, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Newark, Orange County (Calif.), San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C., and an affiliated office in Bermuda, Sedgwick's collective experience spans the globe and virtually every industry. For more information about Sedgwick, its lawyers and the services it provides, visit http://www.sedgwicklaw.com.