NEWS RELEASE

Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts

Caseload Filings Reach Historic Highs in Federal Courts

The caseload of the federal Judiciary increased in fiscal year 1997 reaching historic levels in nearly every category, according to statistics released today by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Filings in the courts of appeals rose 1 percent to reach an all-time high. Total filings in the district courts rose 2 percent, with civil case filings increasing for the fourth consecutive year, and criminal case filings reaching their highest levels since 1933. Bankruptcy filings climbed 23 percent to a record level and the number of persons under the supervision of the federal probation system increased 3 percent. No new Article III judgeships have been created since 1990 and no new bankruptcy judgeships have been created since 1992.

Courts of Appeals

The number of appeals filed in the 12 regional courts of appeals rose 1 percent in 1997 to 52,319. This is the highest number of appeals ever filed in a 12-month period. The growth was caused mainly by increases in appeals of administrative agency decisions, which were up 56 percent, and in original proceedings, which rose 16 percent. Administrative agency appeals increased because of an 81 percent surge in appeals of Immigration and Naturalization Service decisions, following the enactment of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. There also was an increase in the number of appeals of decisions by the Benefit Review Board, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Increases in the categories of administrative agency appeals and original proceedings more than offset drops in criminal, civil and bankruptcy appeals, down 3 percent, 2 percent and 19 percent, respectively. The decline in criminal appeals stemmed from a 7 percent decrease in appeals related to drug offenses. A decline in civil appeals was linked to a 5 percent reduction in the number of prisoner petitions. Petitions may have been affected by the enactment of the Prison Litigation Reform Act in April 1996. Although filings of civil rights prisoner petitions jumped 8 percent between March and June 1996, perhaps in anticipation of the legislation, there was a marked decline of 32 percent from June 1996 to September 1997. Pro se cases constituted 42 percent of all appeals filed in 1997, and 65 percent of all pro se cases were filed by prisoners.

District Courts

The number of civil and criminal cases filed in district courts totaled 322,390 in 1997, a 2 percent increase over 1996. The increase sent filings per authorized judgeship up from 490 to 498.

Civil Case Filings

This was the fourth consecutive year in which civil filings increased, rising 1 percent to 272,027. As a result, civil filings per authorized judgeship grew from 416 to 420, the highest total in 10 years. The growth was due to an increase in cases in which the U.S. was either plaintiff or defendant, and included student loan defaults, social security filings, and a 14 percent rise in prisoner petitions filed by federal prisoners, most of which consisted of motions to vacate sentence. The number of motions to vacate sentence was related to the Supreme Court decision in Bailey v. United States and the 1996 enactment of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. The Bailey decision, which restricted the imposition of enhanced penalties for using firearms in violent crimes or drug trafficking offenses, caused many federal prisoners serving such sentences to seek to vacate them. Federal question litigation dropped 2 percent as state prisoner petitions fell 31 percent, the lowest level since 1991. This reduction stemmed primarily from the enactment of the Prison Litigation Reform Act in 1996. Filings under federal question jurisdiction involve the federal courts= interpretation and application of the U.S. Constitution, acts of Congress or treaties.

Criminal Case Filings

In 1997, the number of both criminal cases and defendants rose to their highest levels since 1933, the year the Eighteenth Amendment on prohibition was repealed. Case filings grew 5 percent to 50,363. Filings per authorized judgeship therefore increased from 74 to 78 cases. Defendant filings climbed to 70,201, a higher number than the total criminal cases filed because many cases include multiple defendants. The criminal filings increased in 1997 because of higher totals for drugs and immigration cases, the results of initiatives by the Department of Justice along the southwest border districts. Most of these cases were disposed of in district courts by guilty pleas, so the large increase in filings did not translate to an increase in criminal appeals.

Drugs, fraud, and immigration filings accounted for 57 percent of all criminal cases and for 63 percent of all criminal defendants, a 2 percentage point increase in both categories over 1996. Filings of drug cases climbed 13 percent to 13,656, while filings of drug defendants rose 8 percent to 25,885¾record high levels for this offense. Immigration case filings rose 21 percent to 6,677, while the number of defendants in immigration cases grew 20 percent to 7,328. Fraud case filings increased for the third consecutive year, with 1997=s 3 percent growth consisting primarily of fraud filings associated with false claims and statements. Some of these cases were related to immigration prosecutions and health care fraud.

Weapons and firearms filings remained at 1996 levels, after declining 13 percent in 1996.

Bankruptcy Filings

Bankruptcy filings in fiscal year 1997 again hit an all-time high for any 12-month period in the Judiciary's history. Bankruptcy filings totaled 1,367,364, a 23 percent increase over fiscal year 1996. The surge in bankruptcy filings most likely was linked to the rise in consumer debt as a percentage of personal income. Filings rose in 93 of the 94 districts, with 82 courts experiencing growth greater than 15 percent. The Central District of California remained the district reporting the largest number of filings in the country with 115,686, an increase of 19 percent. Of the total number of bankruptcy filings for the 12-month period ending September 30, 1997, there were 958,045 Chapter 7 filings, an increase of 26 percent over the 761,652 filings in the same period in 1996. The next largest group of filings were Chapter 13 filings at 397,097, an 18 percent increase over the 336,615 filings in the same period in 1996. Chapter 11 filings dropped to 11,221 in the 12-month period ended September 30, 1997, down from 12,554 in the same period in 1996. Chapter 12 filings also fell slightly, going from 1,096 in 1996 to 966 in 1997.

Business filings totaled 54,252, up 1 percent from the September 30, 1996 total of 53,520. Non-business filings totaled 1,313,112, up 24 percent. Non-business filings have constituted an increasingly larger percentage of overall bankruptcy filings for more than a decade, climbing from 82 percent in 1984 to 96 percent in 1997.

Probation and Pretrial Services

On September 30, 1997, a total of 91,434 persons were under the supervision of the U.S. probation system, a 3-percent increase over the number reported for 1996. The growth was the result of an 11 percent jump in the number of persons serving terms of supervised release following their release from prison. Persons serving terms of supervised release totaled 51,036, up from 45,911 on September 30, 1996. Probation officers prepared 172,806 investigative reports in 1997.

In 1997, the number of defendants in the pretrial services system increased 9 percent, to 69,283. This growth was consistent with the rise in criminal defendant filings in the district courts. Pretrial services officers interviewed 7 percent more defendants (up 3,553) and prepared 9 percent more bail reports (up 5,620) than in 1996. Prebail reports constituted 92 percent of the bail reports prepared. The courts released 30,757 defendants into the custody of pretrial services officers and 27,785 of these defendants also received restrictive conditions. The most frequently ordered restrictive conditions were substance abuse testing and treatment . House arrest and electronic monitoring were other restrictive conditions.

Judicial Caseload Indicators - Fiscal Years 1993, 1996, and 1997 (Adobe Acrobat PDF)