Determinants of Case Growth in Federal District Courts in the United States, 1904-2002
Description
This study analyzed the determinants of the explosion in
the caseload of the United States federal district courts that
commenced in 1960. First, the study sought to provide forecasts of
future demands on the federal courts while reducing forecasting errors
by taking account of the time series properties of the case data. The
researchers constructed a comprehensive dataset based on annual
aggregated civil and criminal case volumes of individual federal
district courts spanning the period 1904-1998, for a total of 95
yearly observations. Secondly, the study specified and estimated
multivariate econometric models of the determinants of civil case
filings over time and across geographic space using panel data
techniques. These empirical models were run on three alternative
datasets consisting of observations on statewide, districtwide, and
circuitwide United States civil, private civil, and total civil cases
per capita, over the period 1960 to 1998. The empirical models
included standard socioeconomic variables, such as income, population
density, and race, along with variables that controlled for fixed
effects associated with the courts' geographic location. The study
also addressed the pressing issue of allocating judgeships across
circuits and districts. Variables include total civil and criminal
cases, percentage of minority population, unemployment rate,
percentage of drug and immigration cases, annual unweighted and
weighted total case filings per judge, and annual civil and criminal
case filings per judge.
Resources
| Name |
Format |
Description |
Link |
|
0 |
ICPSR03987.v1 |
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03987.v1 |
Tags
- forecasting-models
- criminal-courts
- civil-courts
- district-courts
- federal-courts
- caseloads