Rightsizing the Federal Bench: More Judges Handling Fewer Cases

In his first two years in office, President Joe Biden has appointed 95 federal judges to the bench—more than any president had appointed over this same time period since John F. Kennedy. These appointments came after another record-setting presidential term, with more than 200 appointments during President Donald Trump’s four years in office. As of this writing, there are nearly 790 active federal judges serving on district and appellate courts throughout the U.S.

Those judges, on average, faced fewer federal case filings in 2022. In the first 11 months of 2021, litigants filed more than 245,000 cases in the district courts. But in the first 11 months of 2022, these courts have seen fewer than 185,000 new cases, representing a 24.7 percent year-over-year drop. Factoring into this decrease are stark drops in product liability case filings (59.1 percent drop year-over-year), securities case filings (25 percent), and civil rights case filings (17.5 percent).

Read the complete article in the Litigation Forecast 2023.