<< Federal Senior Judges Carry a Growing Workload


Table 1. Trends in U.S. District Court Workload and the
Number of Regular and Senior Judges, 1996 - 2014

  1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Total Civil and Criminal Defendants Terminated* 284,021 289,431 302,840 316,882 308,543 296,809 297,066 318,344 302,607 336,936 327,677 313,773 242,245 267,087 365,736 372,030 357,261 318,930 317,938
Terminated by Senior Judges* 41,323 48,543 51,646 54,498 55,913 52,401 53,115 56,574 52,433 55,444 55,604 57,257 54,136 56,755 63,710 68,647 69,716 70,531 79,121
Percent Terminated by Senior Judges* 14.5 16.8 17.1 17.2 18.1 17.7 17.9 17.8 17.3 16.5 17.0 18.2 22.3 21.2 17.4 18.5 19.5 22.1 24.9
Authorized Judgeships** 647 647 646 646 655 665 665 680 679 678 678 678 678 678 678 677 677 677 677
Vacancies** 44 69 55 38 43 75 50 29 16 36 33 31 27 75 88 67 66 75 50
Regular Judges*** 603 578 591 608 612 590 615 651 663 642 645 647 651 603 590 610 611 602 627
Senior Judges (authorized for staff)** 274 278 276 273 274 281 278 287 294 300 311 310 324 347 356 341 354 346 386
Percent of Judges who are senior*** 31.2 32.5 31.8 31.0 30.9 32.3 31.1 30.6 30.7 31.8 32.5 32.4 33.2 36.5 37.6 35.9 36.7 36.5 38.1
Average Terminated by all Judges*** 324 338 349 360 348 341 333 339 316 358 343 328 248 281 387 391 370 336 314
Average Terminated by Regular Judges*** 402 417 425 432 413 414 397 402 377 438 422 396 289 349 512 497 471 413 381
Average Terminated by Senior Judges*** 151 175 187 200 204 186 191 197 178 185 179 185 167 164 179 201 197 204 205
* Figures provided to TRAC by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts from Judge Activity and Senior Judge Activity reports for years ending June 30.
** From Table 11 (previously Table 12) in "Judicial Business of the United States Courts," an annual publication of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts available at: http://www.uscourts.gov/statistics-reports/analysis-reports/judicial-business-united-states-courts. Data are as of September 30.
*** Computed by TRAC from the two sources above.