Civil Filings for December 2015

Number Latest Month 21,139
Percent Change from previous month 3.3%
Percent Change from 1 year ago -3.7%
Percent Change from 5 years ago -14.5%

Table 1: Civil Filings

The latest available data from the federal courts show that during December 2015 the government reported 21,139 new civil filings. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is up 3.3% over the previous month when the number of civil filings of this type totaled 20,457.

The comparisons of the number of civil filings are based on case-by-case court records which were compiled and analyzed by TRAC (see Table 1).

When monthly 2015 civil filings of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, their number was down (-3.7%). Civil filings for December 2015 are lower than they were for the same period five years ago. Overall, the data show that civil filings of this type are down 14.5% from levels reported in December 2010.

Bar and line plot of fymon

Figure 1: Civil Filings over the last 5 years

The long term trend in civil filings for these matters going back five years is shown more clearly in Figure 1. The vertical bars in Figure 1 represent the number of civil filings of this type recorded each month. The superimposed line on the bars plots the six-month moving average so that natural fluctuations are smoothed out. One-year and five-year change comparisons are based upon the moving averages.

Types of filings

Cases were classified by the federal courts into general types. The single largest number of civil filings of these matters through December 2015 was for "Prisoner Petitions", accounting for 19.4% of civil filings.

As shown in Figure 2, additional categories with substantial numbers of civil filings were "Civil Rights " (14.6%) , "Torts - Personal Injury - Product Liability" (12.6%), "Contract" (10.3%), "Labor" (7.5%).

Jurisdiction

Within limits set by Congress and the Constitution, the federal district courts have jurisdiction to hear cases falling under any one of several categories. The single largest number of civil filings of these matters through December 2015 was under the classification "Federal Question", accounting for 50.5% of civil filings.

As shown in Figure 2, additional categories with substantial numbers of civil filings were "Diversity" (28.5%) , "U.S. Government Defendant" (12.4%), "U.S. Government Plaintiff" (2.0%).

Pie chart of nosgrp

Figure 2: Civil filings by general types
Pie chart of jurisdiction

Figure 3: Jurisdiction
for civil filings

Rankings: Specific Nature of Suits

Court filings are also classified based upon the specific nature of the suit. Table 2 shows the top nature of suit categories recorded in the matters filed during December 2015

Nature of Suit Count Rank 1 yr ago 5 yrs ago  
Civil Rights 1,518 1 3 5 More
Personal Injury- Product Liability 1,381 2 1 2 More
General Prisoner Petitions 1,348 3 2 3 More
Health Care / Pharmaceutical Personal Injury Product Liability 1,233 4 7 - More
Other Civil Rights 1,219 5 4 6 More
Employment 1,042 6 6 4 More
Other Contract 1,030 7 8 7 More
Consumer Credit 785 8 9 10 More
Fair Labor Standards Act 785 8 15 16 More
Insurance 727 10 10 8 More

Table 2: Top district filed

  • "Civil Rights" was the most frequent recorded nature of suit category. "Civil Rights" was ranked 3rd a year ago, while it was the 5th most frequently invoked five years ago.

  • Ranked 2nd in frequency was the nature of suit category "Personal Injury- Product Liability". "Personal Injury- Product Liability" was ranked 1st a year ago, while it was the 2nd most frequently invoked five years ago.

  • Ranked 3rd was "General Prisoner Petitions". "General Prisoner Petitions" was ranked 2nd a year ago, while it was the 3rd most frequently invoked five years ago.

Among these top nature of suit categories, the one showing the greatest increase in civil filings—up 30.6  percent—compared to one year ago was "Fair Labor Standards Act". This was the same category that had the largest increase—53.6%—when compared with five years ago.

Again among the top ten nature of suit categories, the one showing the sharpest decline in civil filings compared to one year ago—down 47.5  percent—was "Personal Injury- Product Liability". This was the same statute that had the largest decrease—29.5%—when compared with five years ago.

Top Ranked Judicial Districts

Relative to population, the volume of civil matters of this type filed in federal district courts during December 2015 was 66.3 per every million persons in the United States. One year ago the relative number of filings was 73.2. Understandably, there is great variation in the per capita number of civil filings in each of the nation's ninety-four federal judicial districts.

Judicial District Percapita Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago  
W Virg, S 1,042.7 959 1 1 18 More
La, E 473.6 786 2 6 5 More
D. C. 306.6 202 3 2 2 More
N. Y., S 158.7 828 4 3 6 More
Delaware 128.3 120 5 4 8 More
Ill, N 124.9 1,169 6 8 19 More
Fla, S 114.4 816 7 7 10 More
Penn, E 113.9 664 8 5 1 More
Nevada 106.0 301 9 10 11 More
Cal, N 100.2 822 10 55 25 More

Table 3: Top 10 districts (per one million people)

  • The Southern District of West Virginia—with 1,042.7 civil filings as compared with 66.3 civil filings per one million people in the United States—was the most active through December 2015. The Southern District of West Virginia was ranked 1st a year ago.

  • The Eastern District of Louisiana ranked 2nd. The Eastern District of Louisiana was ranked 6th a year ago, while it was ranked 5th five years ago.

  • The District of Washington, D.C. now ranks 3rd. The District of Washington, D.C. was ranked 2nd a year ago as well as five years ago.

A recent entry to the top 10 list was Northern District of California (San Francisco), now ranked 10th. This district ranked 55th one year ago and 25th five years ago.

The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of civil filings compared to one year ago—262.2 percent—was Eastern District of Louisiana. Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth—1160.8 percent—was Southern District of West Virginia .

In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of civil filings—59.7 percent—was Southern District of West Virginia. But over the past five years, Eastern District of Pennsylvania showed the largest drop—78.4 percent.

Report Generated: January 25, 2016
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Copyright 2016, TRAC Reports, Inc.