U.S. Magistrate Judges — Judicial Business 2022
Magistrate judges handle a broad range of criminal and civil proceedings in the district courts. In 2022, magistrate judges disposed of 1,192,782 matters, a decrease of 3 percent since 2021.
Overall, civil matters handled by magistrate judges on referral from district judges declined (down 7 percent to 332,667). Magistrate judges disposed of fewer non-dispositive motions (down 7 percent to 219,667) but issued nearly the same number of reports and recommendations on dispositive motions in non-prisoner civil cases (down less than 1 percent to 14,438). They conducted fewer settlement conferences (down 7 percent to 18,785) but held 65 more evidentiary hearings (up 7 percent to 1,018).
Civil cases in which magistrate judges were the presiding judges for all proceedings on consent of the parties, including trials, rose 17 percent to 19,785. Of those cases, jury trials were held in 211 cases, and non-jury trials were held in 72 cases.
Magistrate judges handled 246,886 felony pretrial matters, an increase of 1 percent. In felony cases, they ruled on 161,111 non-dispositive motions (up 2 percent) and issued reports and recommendations on 2,579 dispositive motions (down 3 percent). Magistrate judges conducted 30,329 felony guilty plea proceedings (up 10 percent).
The number of felony preliminary proceedings handled by magistrate judges dropped 4 percent to 468,373. Compared with 2021, magistrate judges handled fewer search warrant applications (down 6 percent to 140,662), arrest warrants/summonses (down 7 percent to 57,067), arraignments (down 9 percent to 47,703), initial appearances (down 3 percent to 94,978), and detention hearings (down 1 percent to 46,249). Magistrate judges handled fewer complaints (down less than 1 percent to 39,887) and preliminary examinations (down 3 percent to 19,375), but more material witness proceedings (up 2 percent to 6,341).
Magistrate judges disposed of Class A misdemeanor cases with 3,400 defendants (up 13 percent) and disposed of petty offense cases with 24,937 defendants (up 9 percent).
In cases brought by prisoners, including cases involving habeas corpus petitions and civil rights claims, magistrate judges issued 21,337 reports and recommendations (down 7 percent) and conducted 191 evidentiary hearings (3 more than in 2021).
Since 2018, the total number of matters disposed of by magistrate judges has decreased 8 percent. Magistrate judges have handled more felony pretrial matters (up 15 percent), but fewer felony preliminary proceedings (down 6 percent), primarily because of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of civil matters they have handled on referral from district judges has dropped 5 percent. Compared with 2018, magistrate judges have handled fewer Class A misdemeanor cases (down 36 percent), petty offense cases (down 78 percent), reports and recommendations in Social Security appeals (down 26 percent), and reports and recommendations in prisoner cases (down 19 percent), but have concluded more civil cases by consent (up 16 percent).
For data on the work of magistrate judges, see Table S-17 and the M series of tables.