Chat Live
By Douglas J. Rose
Very few civil lawsuits ever make it to trial. In an overwhelming majority of cases, the parties involved in civil litigation decide to settle their dispute rather than risk letting a judge or jury decide the case. While civil trials often leave one or another party dissatisfied, a new study shows that when civil cases are appealed and decided on their merits, appellants have a one-in-three chance of seeing trial court outcomes fully or partially reversed.
Out of the 7.5 million civil claims filed in unified and general jurisdiction state courts across the country, there were only 26,950 completed contract, tort and real property trials in 2005, according to the study by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). Roughly one in seven of these trials, or 3,970 of them, were appealed to a state’s intermediary appellate court or court of last resort.
Appellate courts nationwide decided on the merits of 2,420 of these civil trial appeals, as opposed to dismissing them or seeing them withdrawn. These courts reversed the trial court outcomes in 840 of the appeals. For Capital Region litigants, these appellate courts could include the Third Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court and the New York State Court of Appeals, both of which are in Albany.
Civil trials can result in hefty damages awards totaling in the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. Forty-four percent of civil trials that resulted in award damages exceeding $1 million were appealed, according to BJS. Litigants slapped with damages exceeding $100,000 might find some comfort in knowing that 49 percent of cases with such awards were reversed or modified on appeal.
This study – produced for the first time by BJS’ Civil Justice Survey of Trials on Appeal – underscores the risks in taking civil litigation to trial. Whether a case involves a breach of contract, a personal injury, or a land use claim, it is imperative for plaintiffs and defendants alike to retain competent counsel who can prepare cases that compel the opposing party to settle in their clients’ best interests. Nevertheless, when litigants remain adamant about a claim, or about their opposition to a claim, and the case is decided at trial, BJS finds that the parties can expect an appellate court to take 14 months, on average, to decide the appeal’s merits.
Douglas J. Rose is a partner at Tully Rinckey PLLC who concentrates his practice on corporate and commercial law, civil litigation, bankruptcy law, and real estate law. He can be contacted at drose@1888Law4Life.com. To schedule a meeting with one of Tully Rinckey PLLC’s civil litigation attorneys in Albany, N.Y. call 1-888-LAW-4-LIFE.
