With federal courts across the country contending with mounting caseloads, Judge Timothy M. Tymkovich, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, urged Congress today to create new district and court of appeals judgeships to meet growing workload demands.

A hearing on “Justice Delayed: The Crisis of Undermanned Federal Courts” was held by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet. Tymkovich testified on behalf of the Judicial Conference (pdf), the federal Judiciary’s national policy-making body. He previously served as chair of the Conference’s Committee on Judicial Resources, which is responsible for evaluating judgeship needs.

“Substantial delays chip away at the public’s respect for the Judiciary and erode public confidence in the judicial process and the timely administration of justice,” Tymkovich wrote in his prepared testimony (pdf). “The problem is so severe that potential litigants may be avoiding federal court altogether, not having the resources or time to wait for their case to be heard or resolved. One cannot imagine the situation will improve on its own, without additional judges.”

District court filings have grown by 30 percent since 1990, when the last comprehensive judgeship bill was enacted. Since 1991, the overall number of authorized district court judgeships increased by only four percent.  

Burgeoning caseloads can lead to significant case delays. Delays result in increased costs for litigants and raise access to justice concerns, especially in civil cases that may take years to get to trial. Over the past 20 years, the number of civil cases pending more than three years rose 346 percent, from 18,280 on March 31, 2004, to 81,617 on March 31, 2024.

In 2023, the Judicial Conference recommended to Congress adding two judgeships to the courts of appeals and 66 judgeships to the district courts. In addition, the Conference recommended converting seven temporary district court judgeships to permanent judgeships and extending two temporary district court judgeships for an additional five years.

In developing judgeship recommendations, the Conference and its Committee on Judicial Resources use a formal survey process to study and evaluate Article III judgeship needs. Before a judgeship recommendation is transmitted to Congress, it undergoes several levels of careful consideration and review. The surveys are conducted every two years and the resulting recommendations are based on established criteria, including current workload factors and empirical standards.

Weighted filings data for each district court are published in Federal Court Management Statistics.

A Missouri man was arrested and charged with first-degree murder after he turned himself in to police and told them he accidentally killed his father after stabbing him around 50 times.

Jeffrey Goedde, 41, remains in custody after he drove to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday night and allegedly told police, “I made a mistake. I committed a crime, and I want to turn myself in.”

According to the criminal complaint, he described his alleged actions, saying that his father, Edward Goedde, Jr., 75, was “unconscious in the kitchen” of the house where they both lived and “bleeding from his face and back,” also adding that he “may have used a kitchen knife and other weapons” as well as his own hands, but wasn’t able to remember.

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Diversity

Florida Supreme Court tells state bar to stop funding diversity initiatives

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 6, 2024, 8:21 am CST

The Florida Supreme Court has directed the state bar to stop funding diversity and inclusion initiatives in its new budget.

In response, the Florida Bar will transition its Diversity and Inclusion Committee to a new Membership Outreach Committee that will encourage Florida lawyers to get more involved with the bar, report Florida Bar News, Law360 and Bloomberg Law. Diversity funding will also be moved to the new committee.

The Florida Bar is an arm of the Florida Supreme Court, which has oversight of the bar’s budget, the Florida Bar’s communications director told Law360.

The bar’s current budget called for spending $234,000 on diversity and inclusion, according to Bloomberg Law. The previous fiscal year, the bar spent about $300,000 on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

The Florida Supreme Court supports bar participation by all members, according to Paul Flemming, the state supreme court’s director of public information, who was quoted by Law360 and Florida Bar News. As a governmental entity, the bar must treat all members equally and without bias, Flemming said.

The state supreme court’s directive follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision striking down race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.

But diversity is not the same as affirmative action, according to Merrick L. Gross, a shareholder at Carlton Fields, who spoke with Law360.

“There are lots of ways to support and enhance diversity without affirmative action,” said Gross, who told Law360 that he was speaking for himself and not his law firm. “Acknowledging and understanding diversity can amount to removing barriers and creating truly equal opportunity.”

See also:

“Florida judges can no longer get CLE credit for general ‘fairness and diversity’ courses, state supreme court says”

“Refusing to budge, top Florida court says ABA imposes CLE panel ‘quotas,’ state lawyers can’t get credit for participation”