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The Judicial Conference of the United States welcomes the study issued today by the RAND Institute for Civil Justice as an important first step in the Conference's statutory responsibility to evaluate the Civil Justice Reform Act (CJRA) and make recommendations for its future implementation.
"We are pleased to receive RAND's study on CJRA. It will assist the Judiciary with its review of this statute," said Leonidas Ralph Mecham, Secretary to the Judicial Conference. "After reviewing RAND's findings, federal judges, who daily face the challenges of case management, will make significant contributions to the Judicial Conference's report. I am confident that the final report we submit to Congress on June 30, 1997, as required by statute, will accurately and thoroughly reflect the courts' experience in implementing CJRA."
Throughout the history of the U.S. civil justice system, independent judicial officers have been called upon to strike the balance between efficiency and justice. It is this balance that will be addressed as Congress and the Judiciary discuss the ramifications of the RAND study and the recommendations of the Judicial Conference on civil justice reform.
RAND confirms that many of the case management practices long employed by federal judges and incorporated into the federal rules are effective in reducing delay. The median disposition time for civil cases in U.S. district courts is approximately eight months, and has remained fairly constant over the past seven years, never exceeding ten months. The study also notes the limitations of procedural reform in reducing the cost of civil litigation. According to RAND, issues unrelated to judicial case management account for 95 percent of the variation in litigation costs. Specifically, the study found that attorney perceptions, rather than case management procedures, drive most litigation costs; and case management techniques account for only half of the reduced "time to disposition."
Under CJRA, which was enacted by Congress in 1990, the Judicial Conference is required to submit, on June 30, 1997, a report to Congress assessing the case management principles of the Act and making recommendations regarding their future implementation. For its report to Congress, the Judicial Conference will consider the RAND Corporation's study of the Act's principles, guidelines, and techniques as implemented in the pilot courts; a report regarding the results of the demonstration program established under the Act; and the experiences of the 94 district courts in implementing their CJRA plans. The Conference will consider its report to Congress at its March meeting.
The CJRA established the most comprehensive review ever performed of the civil litigation process in the federal courts. It provided the federal courts with a format to conduct a helpful and thorough evaluation of their dockets and case management procedures, and had a direct impact on each of the 94 federal district courts. An enormous amount of time, energy, and input was given by the entire Judiciary as well as over 1,700 attorneys and other litigant representatives from all 94 districts.
The RAND report correctly notes that the CJRA "has raised the consciousness of judges and lawyers and brought about some important shifts in attitude and approach to case management on the part of the bench and bar." During its implementation, the Judiciary adopted many of the Act's suggested procedures. The amendments to the Civil Rules that took effect on December 1, 1993, addressed many of the CJRA's suggestions, and other nonrules related issues were later addressed in 1995 by the Long Range Plan for the Federal Courts.
A statistical review of U.S. district court caseload processing presents further evidence of the impact of CJRA. From 1990, the year of CJRA's enactment, to 1995, the percentage of civil cases over three years old has dropped from 10.6 percent to 5.6 percent of all cases and the actual number has been reduced from 25,672 to 13,538.
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