Today we’re introducing a new feature for the blog: the petition tracker. You can check out the petition tracker page here, or by clicking on “Petitions Allowed” in the banner at the top of any page on the blog.

Although our state constitution says that the “courts shall be open,” open hasn’t always meant “clear.” Before we created this feature, we realized that it wasn’t easy to track the cases pending at the Supreme Court. But it’s helpful to know what cases the Supreme Court has accepted through discretionary review: these are the cases that the Court has chosen to hear. Tracking these cases can give the public and practitioners alike some insight on what gets the Court’s attention and what areas of law the Court wants to develop.

You’ll notice that the petition tracker keeps up with every kind of case that the Court has accepted for discretionary review, both civil and criminal alike. The only cases that we’ve left out are ones where the dockets are restricted, like in juvenile cases. As opinions come out, we’ll keep the page updated with the holdings from the cases.

Leave us a comment to let us know what you think about this new feature!

–Troy