You asked for information on the number of days between when the Connecticut Supreme and Appellate Courts hear cases and publish their decisions.

SUMMARY

The Judicial Branch provided us with information on decisions published by the Connecticut Supreme and Appellate Court during fiscal years 2003-2004, 2004-2005, and 2005-2006 through May 17, 2006.

During this period, the Supreme Court averaged 149 days between hearing a case and publishing its decision, with the shortest time period being 0 days and the longest 540 days.  During this period, the Appellate Court averaged 87 days between hearing a case and publishing its decision, with the shortest time period being 3 days and the longest 462 days.

Of the 448 decisions the Supreme Court published during the period covered by this data, 50% of them were published within the range of 51 and 150 days after hearing the cases.  It published decisions in 88% of them within 250 days after hearing them.

The tables below show data by fiscal year for each court and breakdown the data for the Supreme Court.  Attached are copies of the case-by-case date provided by the Judicial Branch.

SUPREME AND APPELLATE COURT DATA

Table 1 shows the number of cases published by the Connecticut Supreme Court during each fiscal year.  It also displays the shortest, longest, and average number of days between when the cases were heard by the court and the decisions published.

TABLE 1:  SUPREME COURT—NUMBER OF DAYS BETWEEN WHEN CASES ARE HEARD AND DECISIONS PUBLISHED

^{* Through May 17, 2006}

^{** For this case, the Court heard arguments and issued a brief opinion on the same day.  It later issued a full opinion (Office of the Governor v.  Select Committee of Inquiry).}

Table 2 shows the number of cases published by the Connecticut Appellate Court during each fiscal year.  It also displays the shortest, longest, and average number of days between when the cases were heard by the court and the decisions published.

TABLE 2:  APPELLATE COURT—NUMBER OF DAYS BETWEEN WHEN CASES ARE HEARD AND DECISIONS PUBLISHED

^{*Through May 17, 2006}

BREAKDOWN OF SUPREME COURT DATA

Table 3 groups the cases published by the Supreme Court based on the number of days between the court hearing the case and publishing the decisions.  It groups them into 50 day increments and displays the percentage of cases that falls into that time period.

TABLE 3:  SUPREME COURT—BREAKDOWN OF TIME BETWEEN HEARING AND PUBLISHING DECISIONS

^{*Through May 17, 2006}

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