Federal judges face rising workloads, creating longer waits for trial
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Rising judicial workloads in federal courts are creating longer waits for civil trials and for the resolution of criminal cases.
As of last October, 330,000 civil cases were pending in the federal courts, up 20 percent since 2004, the Wall Street Journal reported in April (sub. req.). The problems are especially vexing in the Eastern Districts of Texas and California, the Associated Press reports in a new story looking at the problem.
The California district has had an unfilled judicial vacancy for nearly three years. The average caseload per judge in the district is more than 1,000—about twice the national average—compared to nearly 600 in the 1990s. More than 14 percent of civil cases there have been pending for three years or more.
The U.S. Judicial Conference has recommended doubling the number of judgeships in California’s Eastern District, part of a proposal to create 68 new federal judgeships. Such proposals sometimes linger, along with nominees for vacant positions, amid partisan bickering.
The unfilled judgeship in California’s Eastern District is in Fresno, which has just one full-time district judge—Lawrence O’Neill, who told the Wall Street Journal he typically works 12 to 13 hours a day.
“Over the years I’ve received several letters from people indicating, ‘Even if I win this case now, my business has failed because of the delay. How is this justice?’ ” O’Neill said. “And the simple answer, which I cannot give them, is this: It is not justice. We know it.”
