Our statistical retrospective of Justice Kathryn M. Werdegar’s tenure on the California Supreme Court continues today with an analysis of Justice Werdegar’s dissents and an analysis of the ideological distribution of Justice Werdegar’s majority opinions.

In Table 200 below, we report Justice Werdegar’s dissents divided by area of law.  Justice Werdegar has written two dissents in arbitration law, five in constitutional law, nine in tort law, one in domestic relations, ten in government and administrative law, eight in employment law and one in workers’ compensation.  Justice Werdegar has written seven dissents in civil procedure, one in insurance, two in commercial law, two in tax law, one in election law and one in secured transactions.

In Table 201 below, we report the fraction of Justice Werdegar’s majority opinions in each area of law in which the defendants prevailed.

Justice Werdegar has found for defendants more than fifty percent of the time in five areas of law: taxation (66.67%), tort (56%), arbitration (55.56%), government and administrative law (55.56%), employment law (52.94%) and workers’ compensation (50%).

Justice Werdegar has found for defendants less than half the time in eight areas of law.  Her majority opinions in environmental law have found for defendants 45.45% of the time.  She’s found for defendants 42.86% of the time in domestic relations cases.  Defendants have prevailed in 35.71% of the civil procedure cases for which Justice Werdegar has written the majority opinion.  The defendant has prevailed in one-third of insurance, contracts and wills and estates cases.  The defendant prevailed in 26.32% of constitutional law cases and in 14.29% of commercial law cases.

Join us back here next Thursday as we continue our analysis of Justice Werdegar’s tenure on the Court.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Olaf Gradin (no changes).