Vol. 37, Number 6—June 2005

District Judges Oppose
Rule 11 Changes

The vast majority of federal district judges think frivolous lawsuits are, at worst, a minor problem that are dealt with adequately by existing rules, a new survey shows.

A "Report of a Survey of United States District Judges' Experiences and Views Concerning Rule 11, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure" was compiled by the Federal Judicial Center. The report says that 85 percent of all judges who responded to the survey view frivolous lawsuits as either "no problem," a "very small problem," or a "small problem."

Only 12 percent of the judges considered frivolous lawsuits to be a "moderate problem," a "large problem," or a "very large problem" (see chart).

The Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act of 2004 would have amended Rule 11 to crack down harder on lawyers who file pleadings that are deemed to be frivolous, are presented for an improper purpose, or lack evidentiary support. The bill passed in the House in the 108th Congress, but not in the Senate.

The Judicial Conference opposed the legislation. The Conference's Advisory Committee on Civil Rules asked the FJC to design and implement the survey. The FJC e-mailed questionnaires to 400 district judges in December 2004, and received 278 responses.

The survey report is posted on the FJC's web site at www.fjc.gov. From the homepage, click on "Recent Publications" and then on the survey report.

These other findings are included in the survey report:

• 86 percent of the judges support Rule 11's "safe harbor" provision that allows lawyers to withdraw frivolous pleadings within 21 days. The bill passed by the House would have eliminated that provision.
• 91 percent oppose a requirement, included in the bill, to impose sanctions for every Rule 11 violation. Currently, the rule gives judges the discretion to impose sanctions.
• 84 percent oppose the mandatory award of attorney fees for every Rule 11 violation.
• 54 percent said the amount of groundless litigation has remained relatively constant during their tenure on the federal bench. Only 7 percent said it has increased, and 19 percent said it has decreased.

"Based on their experiences in managing groundless civil litigation in their own courts, federal district judges find the current Rule 11 to be well suited to their needs," the survey report concluded. "Substantial majorities of the responding judges said, in effect, that none of the proposals for changing Rule 11—that is, proposals for mandatory sanctions, mandatory attorney fee awards, removal of the safe harbor, and applications of Rule 11 to discovery disputes—would resolve problems that district judges are experiencing."