THE JUDICIAL BUSINESS OF THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT The Judicial Code of 1911 provided for two district judges for the Northern District of Ohio. An additional judgeship on a temporary basis, provided by an Act approved September 14, 1922 (42 Stat. 837), was made permanent by the Aot of August 19, 1935 (49 Stat. 659). A fourth judgeship, created on a temporary basis by the Act of May 1, 1941 (55 Stat. 148), was made permanent by the Act approved August 3, 1949 (63 Stat. 495). A fifth permanent position was added by the Aot of February 10, 1954 (68 Stat. 8). The chief The district is divided into two divisions. During fiscal 1959, there were 221 civil cases commenced per judgeship in the district compared with 215 cases per judgeship nationally. However, the criminal caseload of 78 cases per judgeship in 1959 was 30 percent less than the national average of 108 cases per judgeship. Numerically, the caseload per Judgeship of cases filed is almost evenly distributed between the two divisions. A higher criminal caseload in the Western Division is balanced by a slightly higher civil caseload in the Eastern Division, However, the number of pending civil 54935 0-60 40 cases per judge is about twice as high in the Eastern Division. The Eastern Division During the last few years the judges at Cleveland, with the assistance occasionally of visiting judges, have been working to reduce the large backlog of civil cases, which developed as the result of heavy civil filings in the years 1949 through 1953, an insufficient number of judges, vacancies and illness in existing judgeship positions, and the trial of many cases of a protracted nature. On June 30, 1957, the civil cases pending at Cleveland fell to 972 and have remained at that level for the last two years. This is the first time in 8 years that the pending caseload has been less than 1,000. This has been accomplished in part by effective pretrial conference work. The total civil cases and private civil cases filed, terminated and pending in the Eastern Division during the last 12 years are shown in the following table: While the district courts across the country were receiving fewer civil actions during fiscal 1959, due to the limitations on Jurisdiction contained in the Act of July 25, 1958, there was a slight increase in civil filings at Cleveland. A decrease in private civil actions from 528 filed in fiscal 1958 to 462 in 1959 was more than offset by an increase in civil actions to which the government was a party. The decline in private civil cases amounting to 12.5 percent was about half the average decline of 22.8 percent in private civil litigation in the district courts nationally. Although docket conditions have improved in the last three years, some congestion remains as shown by the time intervals for the disposition of cases by trial. The median time interval from filing to disposition and from issue to trial for the division for the last twelve years, compared with the national medians are as follows: The 1959 median time interval from filing to disposition of 25.6 months for the cases tried at Cleveland was the fifth longest nationally. It was exceeded only by the time intervals in the Eastern District of New York (44.8 months), the Southern District of New York (26.7 months), the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (26.7 months), and the Western District of Pennsylvania (34.9 months). An important factor relating to the status of the dockets in this division is the constant stream of complicated patent and commercial cases handled in the last few years and the number of potentially protracted cases presently awaiting action by the court. On June 30, 1959 there were 37 patent cases pending, which is 9 cases per judge, or about twice the national average of 5 per judge. The Department of Justice |