NEWS RELEASE

Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts

Retrospective Shows Federal Caseload Increasing

A five-year look back at federal court caseloads nationwide reveals increases--some quite significant--according to a report released today by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The study, Federal Judicial Caseload, A Five-Year Retrospective, published by the AO, found that filings over the last five years of new cases in the appellate and bankruptcy courts have reached record heights. In that time too, filings of criminal cases and defendants reached their highest levels since Prohibition was repealed in 1933.

"The retrospective shows that the workload of the federal Judiciary has increased dramatically," said Administrative Office Director Leonidas Ralph Mecham. "But this 5-year look back not only gives us perspective, it tells us what influences our caseload. And all indications are that our future caseloads will be larger and the demands on judicial resources even greater in the years to come."

The booklet examines bankruptcy, civil, criminal and appeals filings in federal courts between 1993 and 1997, in addition to the civil actions centralized in the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. The impact of the increased caseload on the workload of the courts is briefly assessed, an impact magnified by the number of judicial vacancies and the failure to create new judgeships. Among the facts revealed by the retrospective:

• the surge in bankruptcy filings is most likely linked to record levels of debt as a percentage of personal income.
• breast implant cases caused personal injury filings to increase substantially from 1995 to 1996
• a decrease in prisoner petitions from 1996 to 1997 may be traced to the enactment of the Prison Litigation Reform Act.
• a 3 percent decline in the number of criminal cases filed from 1993 through 1995 was caused by a freeze in the number of assistant U.S. attorney positions. From 1995 to 1997, criminal cases rose 10 percent.

The retrospective report can be found at the Judiciary's website at www.uscourts.gov.