State of the Northern District is "Good"

Posted on May 23, 2008 by R. David Donoghue

According to Chief Judge Holderman during the annual state of the Northern District speech, the state of the Northern District is "good" -- click here for the Northern District's statement regarding the speech.  The Northern District was briefly at full capacity, between Judge Dow's appointment to the Northern District and Judge Filip's resignation to join the Department of Justice.  Other highlights of the presentation included:

  • The Northern District remains in the top ten districts in terms of median time to civil case disposition at 6.2 months.
  • Magistrate Judges Brown and Mahoney were reappointed to additional eight year terms; and
  • The Northern District's 2007 civil case load remained nearly constant, falling only .5% from its 2006 level.

The Northern District's steady civil case load is especially impressive in light of the Seventh Circuit's reduced case load in 2007.  The Chicago Tribune's Ameet Sachdev reported -- click here for the story -- that the Seventh Circuit's Chief Judge Easterbrook, during his state of the Seventh Circuit speech, reported that the Seventh Circuit's case load dropped 10% for the second year in a row.  Sachdev noted that federal appellate court case loads had averaged a 5% drop per year since 2000.  And Easterbrook explained the Seventh Circuit's 10% drop for 2007 as based upon two primary factors:

  • The Seventh Circuit's district courts saw an overall 6% drop in their case loads; and
  • The Seventh Circuit's preference for bright line rules over totality of the circumstance tests made it easier for entities to settle their disputes, saying:

Rules make it easier for private parties to avoid litigation, or settle their disputes, without asking for appellate evaluation in every case.

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The State of the Northern District is "Good"

Posted on May 21, 2007 by R. David Donoghue

Last week Chief Judge Holderman delivered the annual State of the Court Address, it was his first after becoming Chief Judge last summer.  According to the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (subscription required) he explained that the Northern District was doing very well and touched on, among others, the following subjects:

  • By the end of 2007, parties should be able to file complaints and pay filing fees electronically.
  • The Northern District plans to update its website later this year.  To that end, anyone with an e-filing account should expect a letter from Judge Holderman this fall soliciting suggestions to improve the website -- www.ilnd.uscourts.gov.
  • The Northern District's filings were down slightly from 2005 (7,606 cases filed in 2006 compared to 7,805 in 2005).  But if student loan and mortgage foreclosure actions are removed, filings jumped 17% from 2005 to 2006.
  • The Northern District is the seventh fastest district court based upon the time from filing to disposition of civil cases -- 6.5 months.
  • The Northern District has instituted criminal background checks of prospective jurors, after three jurors in former Governor Ryan's 2006 criminal trial failed to disclose their criminal records or arrests during the jury selection process.

You can also read the Northern District's summary of the speech here.

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