An Overwhelming Caseload Tests Florida Court

By August 1997, the Tampa and Fort Myers divisions of the Middle District of Florida faced what seemed to be an insurmountable caseload. Approximately 3,000 civil cases were pending, and the backlog was projected to hit 4,400 by summer 1998. The Middle District of Florida ranks near the top in the country for weighted caseload, and there were many complex cases in the mix that would take time to settle or go to trial. Meanwhile the district court anticipated a shortage of judges, with two of the 11 judges eligible for senior status in 1999. Visiting judges were helping, but couldn’t make the time commitment needed to clear the docket. The Judicial Conference had recommended five new judgeships for the Middle District of Florida, but Congress has authorized no new judgeships since 1990. The future only promised more cases and fewer resources on the bench.

The board of judges, through Chief Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich, knew action was needed and began by targeting the summer months of 1998 as the best time to schedule an all-out attack on the pending caseload. The local bar was notified that beginning June 1, 1998, the Middle District of Florida would be on an Accelerated Trial Calendar (ATC).

“As successful as the ATC was, it also highlighted our inability to maintain the pace necessary to handle the high caseload in the Middle District of Florida.” Chief Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich

“Necessity drove the ATC,“ said Kovachevich. “We were looking at a pending caseload of nearly 3,000 cases that would only worsen if we did nothing. Our goal was to reduce the overall number of civil cases in the Tampa and Fort Myers divisions, and to target the oldest pending civil cases for disposition.”

The nine-month period between September 1997 and the beginning of the trial phase on June 1, 1998, was one of intense preparation. Approximately 850 cases were designated to the ATC. The district’s 12 magistrate judges handled dispositive motions and related pretrial matters. Nearly 250 cases on the ATC contained summary judgment motions that had to be decided to ready the cases for trial. The district’s four senior judges, with the voluntary services of senior and active judges from the Northern and Southern Districts of Florida, were enlisted to handle the criminal dockets during the planned trial months of June, July, and August. This cleared the way for the six district judges in Orlando and Jacksonville to relocate temporarily to Tampa to handle the master trial docket. A master trial calendar was announced.

On the night before the ATC began, the Tampa Bay Federal Bar Association hosted a reception for local bar members and all the district’s federal judges. Any remaining doubts attorneys may have entertained concerning the court’s intent or ability to begin trials the next day were erased. “By June 1,” said Kovachevich, “ we had 11 judges in 11 courtrooms, all starting cases, all selecting juries. It was a distinct advantage having courtroom space.”

The courtrooms were available because the new Sam M. Gibbons Courthouse was partially open that summer in the Middle District of Florida and available to house the Orlando and Jacksonville judges, while the Tampa judges remained in the old courthouse one block away. The new facilities needed furniture, telephones, office equipment, even a sound system, and court staff found themselves giving audio and security systems orientations the night before the trials were to begin.

In all, 75 of the cases designated for the ATC resulted in trials. Mediation was used as much as possible, and many cases settled. For example, the court had estimated that a trial of 20 tobacco cases would take up to four weeks—but there were delays getting even the first case to trial. With the advent of the ATC, all those cases settled short of trial. “The court was committed to the ATC’s firm trial dates,” Kovachevich explained. “To the extent that the Bar perceives a trial date to be realistic, earlier settlements tend to occur.”

The civil case clearance rate, or ratio of terminations to filings, increased to nearly 105 percent during the ATC period, the highest clearance rate experienced during the preceding four-year period. While other factors were involved, the ATC contributed to reducing the pending civil case backlog during the fiscal year 1998 by about 300 cases. Furthermore, the concentration of resources on the Tampa and Fort Myers workload did not appear to have a negative effect on the productivity in the district’s other divisions.

“As successful as the ATC was,“ said Kovachevich, “it also highlighted our inability to maintain the pace necessary to handle the high caseload in the Middle District of Florida. The ATC required increased resources, in terms of judges, staff, and finances, than normally are available to the district. As weighted case filings continue to remain at levels that are more than 55 percent higher than the national average, it is apparent that the judicial and non-judicial resources currently available to us will not be able to reduce the backlog of civil cases, nor keep the backlog from growing larger over time.”

For the future, both of Florida’s Senators and the Representatives from the Middle District of Florida introduced identical legislation supporting four additional district judges for the district. This legislation was included as provisions in the House and Senate Juvenile Justice bills, both of which passed in their respective houses, and await the action of a conference committee when Congress returns from its August recess.