Through September, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court granted allocatur on 81 out of 944 petitions—an approximately 8.5% success rate. I have reviewed published and unpublished opinions—decided between April and August—from the Superior and Commonwealth Courts to predict which cases SCOPA will grant next.

Most articles focus on a particular case immediately after an intermediate court’s decision or immediately before the Supreme Court hears argument. I thought it would be more fun to view cases through the lens of Pennsylvania Rule of Appellate Procedure 1114 to guess which cases will be among the small few reviewed by the court. In addition to the Rule 1114 criteria, I considered: the procedural posture of the case; how the issue is framed and argued—for example, are there any waiver issues; whether the case is published or unpublished; and whether a petition for allowance of appeal was filed. I’ll continue reviewing decisions from our intermediate appellate courts and I’ll keep track of how my predications fare.

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