Vol. 37, Number 1—January 2005

Footnotes

¹       Much of the increase in civil filings came about because of a 16 percent growth in federal question filings (i.e., actions under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States in which the United States is not a party in the case). In particular, there was a doubling of special statutory actions related to financial investments, which in the District of South Carolina resulted in a surge of 19,244 additional cases. Federal question filings related to personal injury/product liability, labor laws, and protected property rights also increased in 2004. Personal injury/product liability filings more than doubled to 2,221 cases because of a variety of new cases filed nationally; labor law filings grew 6 percent due to cases filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act; and a 7 percent rise in protected property rights actions consisted largely of copyright and patent cases.
    Total diversity of citizenship filings increased 11 percent, mostly as a result of a 62 percent spike in personal injury/product liability filings. Most of these cases were filed in the Northern District of Ohio and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The Northern District of Ohio had many new filings under Multidistrict Litigation Docket Number 1535, which addresses alleged injurious effects of welding devices. The Eastern District of Pennsylvania had many new filings under Multidistrict Litigation Docket Number 1203, which addresses the alleged injurious effects of certain diet drugs.
    Filings with the United States as plaintiff or defendant fell 2 percent. Cases with the United States as plaintiff dropped 8 percent, largely due to a 24 percent decline in foreclosure cases. Filings with the United States as defendant rose by only 137 cases to 38,391. Filings of Social Security cases fell 7 percent; however, this reduction was offset by a 22 percent jump in motions to vacate sentence and a 13 percent rise in habeas corpus prisoner petitions.
    Over the past 10 years, civil filings have risen 19 percent, mostly as a result of increases in personal injury/product liability, Social Security, and labor law cases.

²       Filings in the 12 regional courts of appeals grew from 60,847 to 62,762, a record number. Administrative agency appeals surged 23 percent, original proceedings rose 13 percent, and criminal appeals increased 4 percent, which more than offset 4 percent declines in both bankruptcy appeals and civil appeals. The overall rise was due in large part to a continued influx of challenges to the decisions of the Board of Immigration Appeals—as that agency cleared its backlog of cases—and a jump in second or successive motions filed by inmates with habeas corpus petitions. Appeals filings have increased 25 percent since 1995.

³       Case filings increased in 44 districts, and in 29 of those districts the increase was at least 10 percent above 2003. The slight national increase in filings coupled with the expiration of a temporary district court judgeship caused criminal cases per authorized judgeship to rise from 104 in 2003 to 105 in 2004. The growth in the criminal caseload stemmed primarily from increases in cases involving immigration, sex offenses, and firearms, with filings for these offenses reaching their highest levels ever. Immigration cases climbed 11 percent to 17,021. Sixty-nine percent of all immigration cases were filed in five districts along the nation's southwestern border, each of which received more immigration filings than in 2003. Sex offense cases jumped 24 percent to 1,638, largely due to cases in which defendants were charged under laws relating to sex crimes involving juveniles. Firearms case filings climbed 3 percent to 9,352, rising in 52 districts. Nineteen districts received 25 percent or more case increases because of Project Safe Neighborhoods, which supports partnerships among federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to promote the prosecution of firearms violations under federal laws in communities that have been most affected by gun violence. Drug cases fell 3 percent overall to 18,440, despite increases in such filings in 43 districts. The number of drug case filings has been affected by the government's focus on national security and the commitment of federal resources to anti-terrorism efforts. Filings of fraud cases fell 7 percent to 7,539. Social Security fraud cases fell 31 percent to 672 as these filings returned to their 2001 level, the year the Department of Justice began prosecuting defendants for identity theft under Social Security laws. Income tax fraud cases grew 15 percent to 496, and passport fraud cases grew 9 percent to 449. Since 1995, criminal case filings have grown 55 percent.

⁴  Nonbusiness filings decreased 3 percent, and business petitions fell 4 percent. Filings decreased under all chapters except Chapter 11, falling 66 percent under Chapter 12, 4 percent under Chapter 13, and 2 percent under Chapter 7. The reduction in Chapter 12 filings occurred because the legislation authorizing this chapter expired on January 1, 2004. Bankruptcy filings under Chapter 11, which comprised less than 1 percent of all petitions filed, grew 2 percent. Even though filings declined in Fiscal Year 2004, they have soared 83 percent over the last 10 years and remain at close to peak levels.

⁵  Persons serving terms of supervised release following their release from prison totaled 78,594 on September 30, 2004, and they constituted 70 percent of all persons under post-conviction supervision. The number of individuals on parole declined 7 percent to 2,914 and comprised only 3 percent of those under supervision. The number of persons on probation declined 6 percent to 28,882, due to a drop in the imposition of sentences of probation by both district judges and magistrate judges. Of the 112,883 persons under post-conviction supervision, 44 percent were convicted of a drug-related offense, the same as one year ago. There are now 32 percent more persons under post-conviction supervision than there were in 1995.

 ⁶    The number of defendants in pretrial services system cases opened in 2004, including pretrial diversion cases, increased 3 percent to 100,005. Pretrial services officers prepared 2 percent more pretrial reports, while the number of defendants interviewed increased 3 percent. In conjunction with all pretrial services cases closed during the year, a total of 223,092 pretrial hearings were held, an increase of 1 percent over the total in 2003. During the past 10 years, cases activated in the pretrial services system have increased 62 percent.