We’re reviewing the data on declining dockets at the Appellate Court for the years 2011 through 2021 – today, the criminal docket.
Once again – just as with the civil docket – the First District saw the biggest drop from 2011 to 2021, with new criminal filings down 57.8%. The Second District was next, dropping 48.9%. After that was the Third District at 43.1%, the Fifth, 41% and with the smallest drop, the Fourth District at 37.1%.
The First District was fairly stable from 2011 at 1683 to 2016 at 1562. But after that, the large fall-off struck quickly: 1320 new cases in 2017, 1054 in 2018, 976 in 2019, 559 in 2020 and 709 in 2021.
The Second District had 646 new criminal filings in 2011. That was down to 480 by 2016, but filings stayed steady until 2019 (484). Things then collapsed – only 331 in 2020 and 330 last year. The Third District had 444 new criminal filings in 2011. That was up to 521 by 2014, but things slowed down right after that. There were 434 new filings in 2015, 381 in 2016, 385 by 2019, but only 273 in 2020 and 253 in 2021.
There were 602 new filings in the Fourth District in 2011. There were 596 new cases in 2013, but that fell to 503 by 2016. New filings fell to 471 in 2017, 470 in 2018 and 471 in 2019, but then dropped to 346 in 2020 and 379 in 2021.
There were 239 new criminal filings in 2011. That had risen to 261 by 2014 and was still at 238 the next year. After a several-year drop, filings recovered to 230 in 2019, right before the pandemic set in. But there were only 184 new filings in 2020 and 141 last year.
Next time, we’ll begin looking at the Supreme Court’s data.
Image courtesy of Flickr by Matthew Dillon (no changes).