NEWS RELEASE

Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts

The caseload of the federal Judiciary, which reached historic levels in 1997, has reported record numbers of cases for 1998 in most program areas, according to statistics released today by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

Once again, record numbers of cases were filed in appellate and bankruptcy courts, which reported increases of 3 percent and 5 percent, respectively. Criminal case filings and the number of criminal defendants in cases filed in 1998 increased 15 percent and 13 percent respectively — the first double-digit percentage increases since 1972. However, the total number of civil and criminal filings in district courts went down 2 percent, due to a 6 percent drop in the number of civil cases filed. Civil case filings were still 9 percent higher in 1998 than in 1994. In that same time period, the total number of weighted civil and criminal filings per district judgeship climbed 16 percent. Weighted filings take into account the different times judges need to resolve various types of civil and criminal actions. The number of appeals filed per 3-judge panel grew 11 percent, and the bankruptcy filings per authorized judgeship soared 72 percent.

Court of Appeals

For the third consecutive year, filings in the courts of appeals were at record-breaking levels, increasing 3 percent in 1998 to 53,805. The growth was due to a 6 percent increase in civil appeals and a 4 percent increase in bankruptcy appeals.

The number of appeals filed has climbed steadily since 1994, increasing 11 percent overall. In 1998, prisoner petitions rose 8 percent. This increase, coupled with a 7 percent increase in civil rights appeals, drove an overall rise in appeals filed. Habeas corpus petitions surged 36 percent to surpass filings of civil rights prisoner petition appeals for the first time, fueled by a 36 percent jump in habeas corpus filings by state prisoners. A 5 percent increase in motions to vacate sentence also contributed to the overall rise in prisoner petitions. Civil rights prisoner petitions, including those addressing prison conditions, fell 11 percent from 1997 to 1998. Cases involving pro se litigants, 66 percent of whom are prisoners, rose 6 percent in 1998. Pro se cases make up 44 percent of all appeals filed. Bankruptcy appeals climbed 4 percent in 1998, and criminal appeals remained relatively stable, rising less than 1 percent. Increases were reported in the number of appeals related to immigration laws and drugs. Filings of administrative agency appeals and original proceedings declined 14 percent and 8 percent, respectively.

District Courts

Criminal Caseload

Criminal case filings have increased each year since 1994. In 1998, case filings climbed 15 percent from 50,363 in 1997 to 57,691. The number of defendants grew 13 percent, from 70,201 to 79,008.

The combination of drug, fraud, and immigration filings accounted for 60 percent of all criminal cases and for 65 percent of all criminal defendants. Immigration filings, which rose 40 percent to 9,339, accounted for 16 percent of all criminal cases and 13 percent of all criminal defendants. For the first time in 26 years, immigration filings exceeded fraud filings to become second only to drug filings in numbers of cases.

Drug case filings climbed 19 percent to 16,281, while defendants in drug cases filed increased 14 percent to 29,472. These record high levels resulted from increased resources made available to U.S. attorneys in districts along the nation’s southwestern border.

Fraud case filings rose for the fourth consecutive year, growing 6 percent primarily because of fraud filings associated with immigration law violations and to a lesser extend because of lending institution and security and exchange fraud. After rising for three consecutive years, filings of false claims and statements cases declined 4 percent in 1998. Total weapon and firearms case filings climbed 14 percent from 3,184 to 3,641, and defendants in such cases increased 11 percent from 3,988 to 4,441.

The number of criminal cases terminated this year rose 10 percent to 51,428.

Civil Caseload

Civil case filings decreased 6 percent in 1998, to 256,787¾the first drop in civil filings in five years. The reduction was due primarily to a 6 percent drop in both private cases related to federal question and diversity of citizenship litigation. Federal question cases are those concerning the federal courts’ interpretation and application of the U.S. Constitution, acts of Congress, or treaties. Filings involving the U.S. as defendant also fell.

The decline in federal question litigation was attributed mostly to a 22 percent reduction in personal injury cases, of which product liability filings (mostly breast implant cases) fell 26 percent. In particular, filings in the Eastern District of Michigan decreased 40 percent, returning to more typical levels after a year in which an unusually large number of preexisting breast implant cases or claims filed in other districts had been transferred there in accordance with a 1997 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. In addition federal question litigation involving state prisoner petitions fell 7 percent, mostly because prisoner petitions involving civil rights and prison conditions decreased 8 percent, or 2,180 cases.

Filings with the U.S. as defendant fell 12 percent from 39,038 to 34,463, chiefly because of a 34 percent reduction in prisoner petitions filed by federal inmates. Motions to vacate sentence dropped 46 percent.

Filings with the U.S. as plaintiff increased 12 percent from 20,966 to 23,389. This growth occurred primarily because filings related to defaulted student loans jumped 55 percent to 14,043. Department of Justice officials continue to attribute the rise to efforts by the Department of Education to submit defaulted student loans for collection.

Bankruptcy Filings

Bankruptcy filings in fiscal year 1998 totaled 1,436,964. While the filings for FY98 were a 5 percent increase over the same fiscal year period in 1997, this growth was less than the 23 percent increase in FY97 and the 26 percent increase in FY96. In 1997, 93 of the 94 districts recorded increased filings. In 1998, 76 districts reported higher numbers.

This year’s record number of bankruptcy filings most likely was linked to the continued high level of consumer debt as a percentage of personal income. A 6 percent rise in nonbusiness, or consumer, petitions caused this year’s growth. Nonbusiness filings have constituted an increasingly larger percentage of overall bankruptcy filings for more than a decade. Business filings, which accounted for 3 percent of all filings this year, dropped 13 percent in 1998 to their lowest level since 1981.

Of the total number of bankruptcy filings for FY 98, there were 1,026,134 Chapter 7 filings, an increase of 7 percent over the 958,045 filings in the same period in 1997. The next largest group of filings was Chapter 13 filings at 401,151, a 1 percent increase over the 397,097 filings in 1997. Chapter 11 filings dropped to 8,765 in FY 98, down from 11,221 in the same period in 1997. Chapter 12 filings also fell, going from 966 in 1997, to 879 in 1998. Business filings totaled 47,125, down 13 percent from the FY 97 total of 54,252. Non-business filings totaled 1,389,839, up 6 percent from the 1,313,112 filed in the same period for 1997.

Probation and Pretrial Services

On September 30, 1998, the total number of persons under supervision of the federal probation system was 93,737, a 3 percent increase over the number reported for FY 97. This number includes 32,594 persons under probation, 54,819 serving terms of supervised release, and 3,583 under parole. The number of persons serving terms of supervised release following their release from prison rose 7 percent in 1998. Cases involving probation imposed by district judges declined 3 percent and those involving probation imposed by magistrate judges grew 3 percent. Given the continuing reduction in cases under the responsibility of the Parole Commission, parole cases fell 13 percent, and those involving mandatory release dropped 16 percent.

In 1998, the number of defendants in cases activated in the pretrial services system increased 13 percent to 78,603. This growth was consistent with the growth in criminal filings in the district courts. Pretrial services officers interviewed 59,074 defendants and prepared 75,760 pretrial reports, 92 percent of which were prebail reports. Bail review hearings grew 26 percent to 18,948, detention hearings grew 17 percent to 38,429, and violation hearings grew 9 percent to 3,393. Of the defendants released, 31,116 were released with restrictive conditions. The most frequently ordered restrictive conditions involved substance abuse testing and treatment and were imposed on 21 percent of the activated defendants. House arrest and electronic monitoring were ordered for six percent of the activated defendants.