This week, we're continuing our deep dive into the data on
amicus briefs, looking at two questions. First, given that
Illinois only ranks midway through the list of states on the
frequency of amicus briefs, what areas of law, civil and criminal,
are generating amici? And second, for those areas of law, are
most amicus briefs offensive - i.e., attacking an adverse decision
from the Appellate Court - or defensive, defending the Appellate
Court decision? This week, we're reviewing the data for
the years 2000 through 2009.
For the decade of the 1990s, the top area of law by a wide
margin on the civil side was tort, followed by civil procedure,
constitutional law, government and administrative law and insurance
law. For our second decade, tort once again led by a wide
margin with 31 cases drawing at least one extra brief. This
time, government and administrative law was second with 16
cases. Civil procedure ranked third with a dozen cases,
followed by insurance
