Jan. 24, 2012
Year-End Federal Judiciary Review
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. recently released the 2011 year-end Federal Judiciary Review in which he discusses the Judicial Conference’s Code of Conduct and its application.
The report also included analysis of caseloads in the various federal courts.
View a complete copy of the report.
Some of the statistical highlights include:
- In 2011, caseloads increased in the U.S. district courts and in the probation and pretrial services offices, but decreased in the U.S. appellate and bankruptcy courts.
- The total number of cases filed in the Supreme Court decreased from 8,159 filings in the 2009 Term to 7,857 filings in the 2010 Term, a decrease of 3.7 percent.
- Filings in the regional courts of appeals fell 1.5 percent to 55,126. Growth occurred in original proceedings and bankruptcy appeals.
- Civil filings in the U.S. district courts grew 2 percent to 289,252 cases. Fueling this growth was a 2 percent increase in federal question cases (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), which resulted mainly from cases addressing civil rights, consumer credit, and intellectual property rights.
- Filings of bankruptcy petitions declined 8 percent to 1,467,221. This was the first reduction since 2007, when filings plunged after the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 took effect.
- The 129,780 persons under post-conviction supervision on Sept. 30, 2011, represented an increase of 2 percent over the total from the previous year.