In August, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court released its statistical report for 2024. It revealed an interesting trend in the odds the court will grant review in any given case, and that 2024 saw the best odds of the past five years.
Let’s begin with a little context. A party seeks the court’s discretionary review by filing a petition for allowance of appeal on the allocatur docket. While the term “allocatur” (Latin for “it is allowed”) is unique to Pennsylvania, the discretionary review practice it signifies is the same as other certiorari-based courts. The docket is made up of requests seeking review of recent decisions by one of Pennsylvania’s intermediate appellate courts (the Superior and Commonwealth Courts). This is just like the U.S. Supreme Court’s certiorari docket, which is comprised of petitions asking for review of recent decisions by the U.S. Courts of Appeals.
Now for the numbers. The 2024 report shows that the number of grants by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is trending upward. In each year from 2020 to 2024, grants have numbered 81, 95, 91, 112 and 143. At the same time, the number of petitions for allowance of appeal filed each year has been trending downward. These factors have led to a steadily increasing grant rate. In each year from 2020 to 2024, the grant rate has been 4.6%, 5.6%, 6.4%, 8.5% and 9.8%. The 2024 grant rate was double the 2020 rate.
A closer look at the 2024 numbers suggests these rates are actually higher. If “other” dispositions (like summary actions and discontinuances) are taken out, leaving only allocatur grants and denials, then the 2024 grant rate rises to 10.2%. But no matter how you slice it, in 2024, a petitioner had about a 1-in-10 chance of a grant of allowance of appeal by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
To be sure, even with the recent increase, these are not great odds. But they are much better than the 1% chance of a grant by the U.S. Supreme Court (which grants review and issues opinions in 50 to 60 cases out of 5,000 to 7,000 petitions filed each term). Thus, depending on the circumstances, it could be worth it to ask Pennsylvania’s highest court for review after an adverse result in the Commonwealth’s intermediate appellate courts.
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