STATE COURT CASELOAD STATISTICS - ADVANCE REPORT, 1976

• NCJ Number: 57975
• Author(s): ANON
• Date Published: 1979
• Length: 8 pages
• Corporate Author: National Criminal Justice Information & Statistics Service
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Publication Type: Report (Annual/Periodic)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

SELECTED CASELOAD DATA FOR STATE GENERAL JURISDICTION COURTS AS OF 1976 ARE PRESENTED; DATA WERE EXTRACTED FROM AN ANNUAL REPORT ON STATE COURT CASELOAD STATISTICS.

Abstract

THE REPORT REFLECTS COURT ORGANIZATIONS AND JURISDICTIONS AS THEY EXISTED IN 1976. A COURT IS CONSIDERED TO BE A GENERAL JURISDICTION COURT IF IT MEETS ONE OF THE FOLLOWING CRITERIA: THE INDIVIDUAL STATE CONSIDERS IT TO BE A GENERAL JURISDICTION COURT, FELONY CASES ARE TRIED AND FELONY SENTENCES ARE GIVEN FOR ALL TYPES OF FELONY CASES, AND JUDGES ARE GENERAL JURISDICTION COURT JUDGES SITTING ON TEMPORARY ASSIGNMENT. THE 50 STATES, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, AND PUERTO RICO REPORTED MORE THAN 11.7 MILLION CIVIL, CRIMINAL, TRAFFIC, AND JUVENILE CASES FILED IN GENERAL JURISDICTION COURTS DURING 1976. CIVIL CASES ACCOUNTED FOR OVER 50 PERCENT OF THE TOTAL CASELOAD, FOLLOWED BY TRAFFIC CASES (MORE THAN 34 PERCENT), CRIMINAL CASES (15 PERCENT), AND JUVENILE CASES (OVER 5 PERCENT). THERE WAS AN INCREASE OF 6.6 MILLION CASES FROM 1975 TO 1976. THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE PENDING CASELOAD AT THE END OF 1976 WAS CONSIDERABLY DIFFERENT FROM THE DISTRIBUTION OF CASES FILED. THERE WERE 2.5 TIMES MORE CIVIL CASES THAN CRIMINAL CASES FILED IN 1976, BUT THERE WERE 5 TIMES MORE CIVIL CASES THAN CRIMINAL CASES REPORTED AND PENDING AT THE END OF 1976. ALTHOUGH THE AVERAGE NUMBER OF CASES PENDING AT THE END OF THE YEAR IN RELATION TO THE NUMBER OF CASES FILED WAS 73.1 PERCENT FOR ALL GENERAL JURISDICTION COURTS, THE AVERAGE FOR CRIMINAL CASES WAS 52.2 PERCENT COMPARED WITH 89.7 PERCENT FOR CIVIL CASES. THIRTY-NINE STATES, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, AND PUERTO RICO REPORTED THE HANDLING OF SOME OR ALL JUVENILE CASES IN GENERAL JURISDICTION COURTS. THE STATISTICS SHOW THAT GENERAL JURISDICTION COURTS VARY WIDELY IN THE TYPES OF CASES HANDLED. DUE TO THESE VARIATIONS AND TO DIFFERENCES IN REFERENCE PERIODS, DEFINITIONS, THE COMPLETENESS AND ACCURACY OF DATA, AND THE AVAILABILITY OF DATA, DIRECT COMPARISONS OF STATISTICS FOR ANY TWO JURISDICTIONS MAY BE QUESTIONABLE AND PROBABLY INVALID. (DEP)