'Followed Rates' and Leading State Cases, 1940-2005

35 Pages Posted: 8 Apr 2007 Last revised: 8 Apr 2020

See all articles by Jake Dear

Jake Dear

Government of the State of California - Supreme Court of California

Edward W. Jessen

Government of the State of California - Supreme Court of California

Abstract

Citation analysis has long been employed to study interactions between courts and to assess the influence of individual courts in relation to one another. That methodology, however, has been subject to criticism because the number of times a decision has been cited is an overinclusive indicator of influence. This paper reports the preliminary results of a project that updates three-decades-old data concerning comparative influence of state high courts while seeking to avoid some of the problems inherent in simple citation analysis studies. Instead of relying on the rate of citation, we utilize data showing cases that have been followed, as that term has been used by Shepard's Citations Service. Our results reveal, consistent with the prior literature, that the California Supreme Court has long been, and continues to be, the most followed state supreme court. Our results also show that in recent decades some of the previously highest-ranked state high courts have been eclipsed by other courts such as the Supreme Court of Washington. We explore reasons why decisions of some state high courts are followed more frequently than others, and propose further analysis of our data and discussion of our methods.

Keywords: citation analysis, Shepard's, comparative influence, appellate courts, California Supreme Court

JEL Classification: K40

Suggested Citation

Dear, Jake and Jessen, Edward W., 'Followed Rates' and Leading State Cases, 1940-2005. UC Davis Law Review, Vol. 41, p. 683, 2007, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=978041

Jake Dear (Contact Author)

Government of the State of California - Supreme Court of California ( email )

350 McAllister Street
San Francisco, CA 94102-4797
United States

Edward W. Jessen

Government of the State of California - Supreme Court of California

350 McAllister Street
San Francisco, CA 94102-4797
United States

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