TABLE 3 MEDIAN TIME INTERVAL IN MONTHS FROM DOCKETING TO FINAL THE JUDICIAL BUSINESS OF THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS As originally enacted, the Judicial Code of 1911 provided for four circuit judgeships for the Seventh Circuit (36 Stat. 1131). The number was raised to five by the Act of May 31, 1938 (52 stat. 584), and to six by the Act of August 3, 1949 (63 Stat. 493). The jurisdictional area of the circuit covers the states of Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin which according to the July 1, 1959, provisional estimate of the Bureau of the Census had a combined population of 18,853,000, which is an increase of 17 percent since 1950. Court is regularly held in Chicago and only five of the Judges of the court have been available since the disappearance of Judge Parkinson on October 26, 1959. The number of cases filed for the last ten years in this court has fluctuated between a low of 206 in 1952 and an estimated high of 360 for the current fiscal year. Since fiscal year 1957, there has been a decided increase in the number of cases filed annually. For the five years from 1951 to 1955, the annual filings were 256. From 1956 to 1960 with the last half of fiscal 1960 estimated, the average annual filings were 301, an increase of almost 20 percent. The cases terminated increased with the number filed so that the pending caseload has been held down until the past six months when it has increased 28 cases over the same period last year. The median time interval in months from docketing to final disposition of cases heard or submitted in the fiscal year 1959 was 5.4 months which was below the national median. A statement of the cases filed, terminated and pending per Judgeship in this court for the fiscal year 1959 is given in the following table: CASES FILED, TERMINATED, AND PENDING PER JUDGESHIP Table I attached shows the number of judgeships in this court and the number of appeals commenced, terminated and pending and terminated after hearing or submission with the last column showing the cases terminated per judgeship after hearing from the fiscal year 1941 through the first half of the current fiscal year. A significant feature of this table is the current trend of filings which is shown by the increase in the fiscal year 1958 to 289 from 262 in fiscal year 1957, a continued increase to 302 in fiscal year 1959 and a further increase in the first half of the current fiscal year. It is estimated that this year's filings will approximate 360. Table II shows the nature of business of the court for the fiscal year 1959. Table III gives the source of appeals. Table IV shows the median time interval in months from filing to disposition for the past five years. At a joint meeting of the Judicial Conference Committees on Judicial Statistics and Court Administration, held on February 22, 1960, a resolution was adopted recommending to the Conference an additional judgeship for this court. This will be considered by the Conference on March 10, 1960. Respectfully submitted, Wills Lifutt Will Shafroth Chief, Division of Procedural March 1, 1960 TABLE I UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT, The cases pending at the end of the fiscal years 1941 to 1952 include cases decided, but in which the time for filing a petition for rehearing had not expired. The pending figures for 1953 and subsequent years do not include any decided cases. **Adjusted. |