NCJ Number
80089
Date Published
1981
Length
96 pages
Annotation
Information on workload, personnel, caseload, dispositions, and finances are provided for Iowa trial and appellate courts for 1980.
Abstract
In the appellate courts, there were 1,620 filings (1,081 civil, 539 criminal) and 1,510 dispositions (1,056 civil, 454 criminal); filings and dispositions increased 7.5 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively, from 1979. Since 1970, the number of filings in appellate courts soared 162 percent, and the number of filings per appellate judge jumped 68.1 percent. There were 665 formal dispositions in the appellate courts in 1980, compared to 667 in 1979. Domestic relations cases comprised 29.6 percent of the formal appellate decisions in civil cases. The average appellate case terminated by formal opinion was decided 5 months after it was ready for submission; the average elapsed time from the filing of a notice of appeal to the time a case was ready for submission was 8 months. The number of pending cases in the appellate courts rose 11.9 percent during 1980. In the 25 years since 1956, the first year trial court statistics were collected and analyzed at the State level, the number of civil filings escalated 155 percent, while the number of criminal filings increased 477.4 percent. The number of juvenile petitions soared 242.3 percent, while the number of probate cases opened rose 45.3 percent. Indictable misdemeanor cases comprised 12,954 of the 35,669 criminal filings, or 36.3 percent of the total. There were 8,822 felony filings. Tabular and graphic data are provided. (Author summary modified)