NCJ Number
142043
Date Published
1993
Length
95 pages
Annotation
The policies, procedures, and methods used by the Judicial Conference of the United States in recommending the creation of additional Federal judgeships were examined, using data from the 1990 recommendations for 87 district judgeships and 20 judgeships for the circuit courts of appeals.
Abstract
The Conference considered judgeship requests for 55 district courts and seven courts of appeals in 1990. The limitations of current workload measures and the judgmental nature of much of the Conference's decisionmaking prevented conclusions regarding whether the 1990 recommendations accurately reflected the need for additional judges. However, within these limitations, findings indicated the Conference's method of determining the need for more judges to be reasonable. In developing its recommendations, the Conference judgmentally applied both written and unwritten policies, procedures, and methods and was generally consistent in applying them to each court. The workload measures are 13 years old and are being revised. Preliminary efforts are also underway to produce better measures of appellate court workloads. Figures, tables, and appended tables and agency comments