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.