U.S. Magistrate Judges — Judicial Business 2025

Overall, duties performed by magistrate judges in civil cases rose 7 percent to 473,706. Increases occurred with respect to orders on non-dispositive motions in the category of other civil cases (i.e., cases that are not classified as prisoner cases or Social Security appeals), which rose 12 percent to 194,406; reports and recommendations issued on dispositive motions in other civil cases, which grew 18 percent to 19,837; and grants of in forma pauperis (IFP) status in other civil cases, which went up 38 percent to 7,053. 

Magistrate judges handled more duties related to non-consent prisoner litigation and Social Security cases than they had in the prior year. In non-consent prisoner litigation cases, they issued 112 more reports and recommendations, issued 1,433 more orders on non-dispositive motions, conducted 44 more motion hearings/arguments, performed 284 more other prisoner duties, and held 30 more evidentiary hearings. In non-consent Social Security cases, magistrate judges issued 6,225 orders on non-dispositive motions (up 9 percent) and issued 3,599 grants of IFP status (up 19 percent).

The number of duties performed by magistrate judges in civil cases in which they were the presiding judges for all proceedings on consent of the parties, including trials, rose 9 percent to 77,965. In the 17,364 civil cases terminated by magistrate judges on consent, jury trials were held in 122 cases, and non-jury trials were held in 53 cases.

Magistrate judges handled 275,956 felony pretrial matters, an increase of 7 percent. In felony cases, they ruled on 17,176 more non-dispositive motions than in 2024 (up 10 percent to 186,079). They conducted 22,337 pretrial conferences/omnibus hearings (up 4 percent), 35,553 felony guilty plea proceedings (up 2 percent), and 9,177 reentry/drug court proceedings (up 7 percent).

The number of felony preliminary proceedings handled by magistrate judges rose 7 percent to 576,876. Compared with 2024, magistrate judges handled more complaints (up 45 percent to 59,217), initial appearances (up 10 percent to 104,833), arrest warrants (up 17 percent to 50,153), arraignments (up 9 percent to 51,967), detention hearings (up 9 percent to 52,132), search warrant applications (up 1 percent to 210,412), and attorney appointments (up less than 1  percent to 6,912). Magistrate judges handled fewer preliminary examinations (down 12 percent to 18,984); material witness proceedings (down 31 percent to 4,556); bail reviews, forfeitures, and Nebbia hearings (down 9 percent to 7,248); and summonses (down 4 percent to 10,462).

Magistrate judges disposed of 4,070 Class A misdemeanor defendants (up 33 percent) and 45,395 petty offense defendants (up 16 percent).

In non-consent cases brought by prisoners, including cases involving habeas corpus petitions and civil rights claims, magistrate judges issued 19,646 reports and recommendations (up 1 percent) and conducted 175 evidentiary hearings (up 21 percent).

Since 2021, the total number of duties reported by magistrate judges has increased 12 percent. Magistrate judges have handled more felony preliminary proceedings (up 18 percent), felony pretrial matters (up 13 percent), Class A misdemeanor cases (up 35 percent), petty offense cases (up 92 percent), and civil matters on referral from district judges (up 2 percent). The number of civil cases magistrate judges have terminated on consent has increased 1 percent to 17,364, while the number of duties they have performed in consent cases has fallen 2 percent, with magistrate judges handling fewer orders on motions (down 4 percent), fewer pretrial conferences (down 17 percent), and fewer motion hearings/arguments (down 16 percent).

For data on the work of magistrate judges, see the M series of tables.