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Examining the Work of State Courts, 2007: A National Perspective from the Court Statistics Project

NCJ Number
225017
Editor(s)
Robert C. LaFountain, Richard Y. Schauffler, Shauna M. Strickland, William E. Raftery, Chantal G. Bromage, Cynthia G. Lee, Sarah A. Gibson
Date Published
2008
Length
81 pages
Annotation
This report provides comprehensive and up-to-date information on court caseloads for the Nation’s State courts in 2007.
Abstract
Highlights of the 2007 annual report include: (1) the number of newly filed, reopened, and reactivated cases reported to the Court Statistics Project from the Nations’ State courts reached 102.4 million incoming cases in 2006; (2) 54 percent of the 102.4 million cases fell under the traffic category; (3) the total number of judicial officers in State courts rose about 5 percent in the last 10 years; (4) in 2006, 29 States were able to report reopened and/or reactivated caseloads in at least 1 category, and 10 States were able to report these cases in all 5 of the major categories; and (5) 22 general jurisdiction courts provided pending caseload data for all of the major case categories over which they had jurisdiction. Data on court caseloads are presented for six specific caseload areas: civil caseloads; domestic relations caseloads; criminal caseloads; juvenile caseloads; traffic/violations caseloads; and appellate caseloads. This year a number of States made significant improvements in the level of detail provided by their trial courts. Changes range from reporting additional case types to changing the method of counting criminal cases to distinguishing reopened and reactivated cases from new filings. The Court Statistics Project is funded through the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Figures, charts, and appendixes