Asylum Approval Rate by Judge: What the Numbers Mean
A judge's asylum approval rate is most useful when read alongside case volume, nationality breakdown, court assignment, and recent trends.
The basic formula
Asylum grant rate is calculated as granted cases divided by granted plus denied cases. Procedural outcomes are not counted in that grant-rate denominator.
For example, terminated, withdrawn, administratively closed, or otherwise procedural outcomes can matter for understanding workload, but they are not the same as a merits grant or denial.
Why nationality mix matters
Different nationality groups can have very different historical asylum grant rates. A judge with a low overall rate may still have higher grant rates for some nationalities, and the reverse can also be true.
Always compare the overall judge rate with nationality-specific rows before drawing a conclusion.
Why sample size matters
A high rate from a small number of cases is less stable than a similar rate from hundreds of decided cases. Large sample sizes usually make the trend more meaningful.