Introduction to Petition for Review Case Reporting

 

The new Petition for Review–Caseload Summary matrix contains four changes that deserve special note and attention.

 

First, the Criminal petition for review subcategories focus on felony versus other criminal petitions for review.  This is important because courts can now distinguish non-capital felony petitions (Felony–Homicide, Felony–Other Crimes Against the Person, Felony–Burglary, Theft, and Other Crimes Against Property, and Felony–All Other Felony Cases) from non-felony criminal petitions for review (Other Criminal–Misdemeanor, Other Criminal Interlocutory, and Other Criminal–All Other cases.

 

Second, the new petition for review reporting follows the trial court reporting in that domestic relations case petitions for review are recognized as a distinct case type category.  Separating the domestic relations case petitions from the civil case petitions allows the courts to better track the issues arising from the various categories of domestic relations cases (or family law cases) from the trial courts.

 

Third, since the distinction between mandatory and discretionary jurisdiction is no longer being made, cases that are not petitions for review should not be counted in the petition for review reporting matrices.  Cases such as certified questions, advisory opinions, or original proceedings are now counted in the Other Appellate–Caseload Summary matrix so that courts can use the information in the petition for review case matrix to focus specifically on the details of the petitions that are being brought before them.

 

Fourth, the petition for review reporting matrices no longer seek to capture the number of petitions that were granted by the court or the number of granted petitions that were disposed by the court during the reporting period.  This change was made in conjunction with the changes made to the manner of disposition matrix in that the matrix captures the number of petitions that were decided (i.e., granted) versus those that were dismissed or denied.

 

The appellate court Manner of Disposition matrix allows courts to report more detailed accounts of their decisions.  There are now three distinct steps to reporting case dispositions. 

The first step is the Manner of Disposition – how many cases were Decided, Dismissed, Denied, Transferred to Another Court, or disposed by Other Resolution.

 

The second step reports the Type of Court Opinion – how many cases the court disposed as Published Opinion, Memorandum Decision, Order, Per Curiam Affirmed, or Other Opinion.

 

The third step reports Case Outcomes – how many decisions were Affirmed, Reversed, Reversed and Remanded for New Trial, Remanded for New Sentence Hearing Only, Modified and Remanded to Intermediate Appellate Court, or resulted in Other Modifications.