Measuring productivity solely by counting opinions filed each year is inaccurate and misleading because the raw number of opinions does not reflect the number of issues analyzed by the court in a given year. An appropriate measure of the court's productivity should consider two factors often overlooked in simply counting the number of opinions: (1) the number of issues analyzed in court opinions; and (2) the court's discharge of nonopinion responsibilities. The California Supreme Court currently analyzes about 50 percent more legal issues than it did between 1970 and 1986 and over 50 percent more legal issues than the U.S. Supreme Court. An average opinion in a capital case analyzes over three times more issues than an average opinion in all other cases, while an average opinion affirming a capital case analyzes almost four times more issues than an average opinion in all other cases. Between 1988 and 1994, the number of petitions resolved by the court increased by about 28 percent. It is recommended that future studies of appellate court productivity focus on factors beyond the raw number of opinions filed. 13 notes and 11 figures