2010 Annual Director's Report - Judicial Discipline Reform

22 Adminstrative Office of the United States Courts
Tables 3 and 4 summarize key data on civil filings
in the U.S. district courts. The C series of appendix
tables provides detailed information on civil cases.
Criminal Filings
Filings of criminal cases (including transfers)
increased 2 percent to 78,428. The number of
criminal defendants (including transfers) also rose 2
percent and reached a new record of 100,366,
surpassing the previous record of 97,982 set in 2009
(case filings did not exceed the historic high of
92,174 reported in 1932 before the repeal of the
Prohibition Amendment). Case terminations grew 4
percent to 78,069. Defendants whose cases were
concluded rose 3 percent to 98,666. Cases pending
increased less than 1 percent to 79,427, and
defendants in cases pending grew 2 percent to
109,187. Proceedings were concluded against
98,311 defendants (excluding transfers), an increase
of 3 percent over 2009. Ninety-one percent (89,741)
of those defendants were convicted, with 89
percent (87,418) pleading guilty. The median time
from filing to disposition of criminal defendants
decreased from 6.5 months in 2009 to 6.3 months
as the proportion of defendants convicted of
immigration offenses, which typically require less
time to process, continued to rise.
Increases in cases and defendants (excluding
transfers) were reported for general offenses,
property offenses, immigration offenses, and
regulatory offenses. Decreases in cases and
defendants were associated with violent offenses,
firearms and explosives, drugs, sex offenses, and
justice system offenses (i.e., crimes related to
judicial proceedings, such as obstruction of justice
or failure to appear).
Criminal Cases Filed, by Nature of Offense
The criminal caseload continued to be dominated
by immigration filings. Immigration cases
constituted 36 percent of all criminal cases filed,
compared to 34 percent in 2009 and 25 percent in
2006. However, immigration filings rose at a slower