2010 Review: Is there a Seasonal Variation in Legal Decisions?

Over the past few weeks, I have been working on a fire-law year in review article and I was blown away at how many major legal decisions were handed down in January and to a lesser extent February of 2010. Four of the 10 most interesting and important fire service cases in 2010 were decided in January and two more were decided in February. Many of the runners up for the top 10 were also decided in January.

That brings up todays burning question: Was it just a fluke? Why would 60% of the major cases be decided so early in the year in 2010?  Perhaps it was a coincidence, but maybe not. Perhaps the holiday season gives judges an opportunity to catch up on some of the legal writing and decisonmaking they have been putting off, resulting in a large number of decisions being issued in January. Perhaps judges prefer not to render bad news before the holidays… no doubt when a decision is rendered there’s always bad news to one party or the other… and withhold decisions they actually made in late November and December until after the holidays.

Does anyone out there have another perspective? In any event, we eagerly await the decisions for January and February 2011. And what were those top ten cases for 2010?