RELEVANT SELECTION CRITERIA WERE IDENTIFIED AND A NUMBER OF OFFICES EVALUATED FOR POSSIBLE INCLUSION. GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION, OFFICE SIZE, QUALITY AND QUANTITY OF CASE INFORMATION, AND FEASIBILITY WERE THE CRITERIA FOR SELECTING 11 DISTRICTS WHICH HANDLED 21.9 PERCENT OF THE CRIMINAL FILINGS AND 19.8 PERCENT OF THE CIVIL FILINGS DURING FISCAL YEAR 1978. CASE WEIGHTING REFLECTED MEASURING AND RECORDING TIME SPENT BY ATTORNEYS ON VARIOUS ACTIVITIES OVER A 90-DAY PERIOD USING THE CASE-LIFE AND EVENT-BASED METHODS. THE DATA BASE CONTAINED RECORDS OF TIME SPENT BY ATTORNEYS, EVENT AND ATTRIBUTE INFORMATION ON THE CASES THEY REPORTED, AND SIMILAR INFORMATION ON CASES TERMINATED DURING THE YEAR. RESULTS OF AN EXTENDED TEST OF THE WEIGHTS USING THE ACTUAL DISTRIBUTION OF POSITIONS IN 94 DISTRICTS AS THE CRITERION FOR ACCEPTANCE INDICATED THAT THE BUDGET WEIGHTS PRODUCED BY THE CASE-LIFE METHOD, WHEN APPLIED TO THE ESTIMATED FISCAL YEAR 1979 CASE LOAD, WOULD REPRODUCE THE NUMBER OF ATTORNEYS IN EACH OF THE 94 DISTRICTS WITH A REASONABLY HIGH DEGREE OF ACCURACY. FUTURE RECOMMENDATIONS INCLUDE DEVELOPMENT OF INFORMATION ON FILINGS AND BACKLOG TRENDS BY CASE TYPE, ALLOWING FOR EFFECTS UPON OFFICE ALLOCATIONS OF CHANGES IN CASE MIXTURE, POLICY, AND CASE-HANDLING PROCEDURE; AND FUTURE RESEARCH IN THE AREAS OF DATA REPROCESSING, THE GENERATION OF CASE-LOAD ESTIMATES, AND THE COMPARISON BETWEEN DISTRICTS SUGGESTED BY THE VARIANCE IN WEIGHTS. APPENDIXES CONTAIN CASE SUMMARY FORMS, AND TITLE AND SECTION AGGREGATED BY RESOURCE RATIO. TABULAR DATA ARE INCLUDED. (AOP)