The_RANDy_Corporation
03-14-2001, 01:18 PM
Something has to be done about all these prison appeals. They oughta do away w/ diversity jurisdiction too, don't ya think?
*********8
Mar 14, 2001 - 01:28 PM
Record Number of Federal Appeals Filed in 2000
By Anne Gearan
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal appeals judges handled more cases than ever last year, continuing a five-year trend of escalating caseloads, the federal judiciary reported Wednesday.
The nation's 12 regional federal appeals courts took in 54,697 new cases in fiscal 2000, and acted on or otherwise dispatched 56,512. Many of the cases are not lawsuits in the usual sense, but rather civil rights petitions from prisoners and other matters that the judges typically resolve without hearings.
Appeals courts were left with 40,410 pending cases at the close of fiscal 2000, an improvement from the 1999 figure of 42,225 but about 4 percent above the 1996 level of 38,774.
The federal appeals courts are one step above U.S. district courts and for many cases the last stop before the Supreme Court.
Federal appeals are up 5 percent from 1996, when 51,991 cases were filed, but the increase from 1999 to 2000 was a minuscule four cases, according to a report of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
Downturns in some categories of appeals were offset by increases elsewhere. For example, bankruptcy appeals fell 9 percent, but original cases, or those that start in the appeals court as opposed to coming there from a lower federal court, grew 18 percent.
Criminal filings in federal district courts also rose in 2000, while noncriminal, or civil, filings in those courts decreased a tiny amount.
Federal district courts, the first stop for most federal cases, took in 62,745 new criminal matters last year, up 4.7 percent from 1999 and 31 percent from 1996.
Noncriminal filings declined by 754 cases, or less than 1 percent, to 259,517 from 1999. Civil filings are down 3.6 percent from 1996, when 269,132 cases were filed.
Federal judges' workload increased in 2000, as measured by a system that assigns different weights to cases depending on the amount of time typically needed to resolve them. When adjusted this way, each federal judicial seat was responsible for 479 filings last year, up from 472 in 1999.
In practice the workload is even higher, because not all judicial seats are filled. That means other federal judges have to pick up the slack.
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA7PD5EBKC.html
*********8
Mar 14, 2001 - 01:28 PM
Record Number of Federal Appeals Filed in 2000
By Anne Gearan
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal appeals judges handled more cases than ever last year, continuing a five-year trend of escalating caseloads, the federal judiciary reported Wednesday.
The nation's 12 regional federal appeals courts took in 54,697 new cases in fiscal 2000, and acted on or otherwise dispatched 56,512. Many of the cases are not lawsuits in the usual sense, but rather civil rights petitions from prisoners and other matters that the judges typically resolve without hearings.
Appeals courts were left with 40,410 pending cases at the close of fiscal 2000, an improvement from the 1999 figure of 42,225 but about 4 percent above the 1996 level of 38,774.
The federal appeals courts are one step above U.S. district courts and for many cases the last stop before the Supreme Court.
Federal appeals are up 5 percent from 1996, when 51,991 cases were filed, but the increase from 1999 to 2000 was a minuscule four cases, according to a report of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
Downturns in some categories of appeals were offset by increases elsewhere. For example, bankruptcy appeals fell 9 percent, but original cases, or those that start in the appeals court as opposed to coming there from a lower federal court, grew 18 percent.
Criminal filings in federal district courts also rose in 2000, while noncriminal, or civil, filings in those courts decreased a tiny amount.
Federal district courts, the first stop for most federal cases, took in 62,745 new criminal matters last year, up 4.7 percent from 1999 and 31 percent from 1996.
Noncriminal filings declined by 754 cases, or less than 1 percent, to 259,517 from 1999. Civil filings are down 3.6 percent from 1996, when 269,132 cases were filed.
Federal judges' workload increased in 2000, as measured by a system that assigns different weights to cases depending on the amount of time typically needed to resolve them. When adjusted this way, each federal judicial seat was responsible for 479 filings last year, up from 472 in 1999.
In practice the workload is even higher, because not all judicial seats are filled. That means other federal judges have to pick up the slack.
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA7PD5EBKC.html