Report on Caseloads and Operations of the Courts of Washington

• NCJ Number: 81586
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 99 pages
• Corporate Author: Washington Office of the Administrator for the Courts
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Publication Type: Statistics
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This report describes the activities of the courts of the State of Washington during 1980; expenditures, the State supreme court, the court of appeals, the superior courts, and courts of limited jurisdiction are emphasized.

Abstract

In all courts, criminal case filings increased far above expectations based on historic trends. Misdemeanor filings in the courts of limited jurisdiction increased 18 percent, felony filings in the superior courts increased 21 percent, and criminal appeals filed in the appellate courts increased 17 percent. The greatest changes experienced in the Washington court system during 1980 were in the courts of limited jurisdiction. A 1-day mandatory jail sentence for conviction of driving while intoxicated was enacted in 1979 and implemented in 1980. Coupled with the increase in criminal caseloads was an increase in civil caseloads. With filings almost 50 percent above historic trends, workloads increased substantially. However, there was no corresponding decrease in superior court civil caseloads. Of special concern was the rapidly growing caseload in the court of appeals. State expenditures for judicial services totalled $12,074,449 for fiscal year 1979 through 1980. Graphs, charts, and 112 tables are provided. (Author summary modified)