The following statistics were released in Chief Justice Roberts’ 2011 year-end report on the Federal Judiciary: Caseloads increased in the U.S. district courts by 2%, but decreased in the U.S. appellate and bankruptcy courts 1.5% and 8% respectively. The total number of cases filed in the Supreme Court decreased 3.7% from 8,159 filings in the 2009 Term to 7,857 filings in the 2010 Term. During the 2010 Term, 86 cases were argued and 83 were disposed of in 75 signed opinions, compared to 82 cases argued and 77 disposed of in 73 signed opinions in the 2009 Term. 14.
Civil filings in the U.S. district courts grew 2% to 289,252 cases. Fueling this growth was a 2% increase in federal question cases (i.e., actions under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the U.S. in which the U.S. is not a party in the case), which resulted mainly from cases addressing civil rights, consumer credit, and intellectual property rights. Cases filed with the U.S. as a party climbed 9%. Those with the U.S. as plaintiff increased in response to a surge in defaulted student loan cases. Cases with the U.S. as defendant rose largely because of growth in Social Security cases.
Although criminal case filings (including transfers) remained stable (up by 12 cases to 78,440), the number of criminal defendants increased 3% to set a new record of 102,931. Growth in filings occurred for defendants charged with drug crimes, general offenses, firearms and explosives offenses, sex offenses, and property offenses. Filings for defendants charged with immigration offenses fell for the first time since 2006, decreasing 3%. The southwestern border districts accounted for 74% of the Nation’s total immigration defendant filings, up from 73% in 2010.
Filings of bankruptcy petitions declined 8% to 1,467,221, the first reduction since 2007 after the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 took effect. Filings for 2011 were lower in 87 of the 90 bankruptcy courts. Nonbusiness petitions fell 8%, and business petitions dropped 14%.