Let’s dissect the problem.
Nearly a fifth of the Superior Court bench — 12 of 62 seats — is vacant, according to an internal Superior Court document, called a judicial vacancy impact statement, that I obtained.
The staffing problem only worsens this year, with several retirements on tap, including one judge who will depart in February. Meanwhile, 10 judicial nominees are pending in the Senate, and there are two seats with no nominee from the White House.
Several factors are driving the docket jam and bloated caseloads. Below are selected excerpts from the vacancy impact statement; I am quoting them at length to drive home the depth and complexity of the problem:
- “Juvenile crime is increasing, and speedy trial statutes require that judges often double and triple book trial dates to comply. Given the judicial shortage, there are only two judges assigned to separate juvenile calendars. The number of juvenile cases pending in 2023 exceeded 500. Additionally, the nature of juvenile crime has become more violent, resulting in an increased number of initial hearings and probable cause hearings when the court considers detaining a juvenile in a delinquency case.”
- “Since 2022, the Criminal Division has seen a 54% increase in felony case filings. During that same time period, misdemeanor case filings have increased 67% and traffic matters prosecuted by the DC Office of the Attorney General have increased by 10%.”
- “Because of the judicial shortage, the Criminal Division has had to double the misdemeanor calendar load — where there were previously seven full-time calendars, there are now four, handled by three Associate Judges and a rotation of Senior Judges.”
- “In 2023, 8,427 new cases were filed in the Family Court Division. Of note, Domestic Relations cases are never truly closed and in 2023, 3,497 post-disposition motions were filed in the Domestic Relations Branch, which require judges to essentially retry the matters following an initial resolution of those cases.”
- “The judicial shortage, and the related increased caseload in Domestic Relations, increases the time to disposition in significant percentages of matters that pertain to critical, life-altering subjects such as custody, child support, and familial property.”
- “Involuntary civil commitment filings are exploding; because of the pandemic and short recession, people with mental illness experienced increased homelessness and the loss of structural support from family and core service agencies.”
- “In the last ten years, the caseload has more than doubled in the Domestic Violence Division. In 2023, four judges were assigned 6,346 new cases, which include Extreme Risk Protection Order and Temporary Protective Order matters requiring same day adjudication of a sensitive and often volatile nature. One of the four Domestic Violence judges will retire at the end of February.”
- “Without the appointment of a new judge, only one judge will be left to handle Criminal Domestic Violence misdemeanors across two courtrooms, doubling the workload for that judge to approximately 30-60 cases per day, which will result in longer waits for litigants for their hearings, as well as significant delays in resolving domestic violence cases.”
- “Because of unfilled vacancies, the Civil Division has not been able to cover each calendar with a judicial officer for virtually all of the past 7 years. Cases on unassigned calendars are split among other division judges to handle alongside their own full-time assignments, stretching judicial officers and their staff to capacity beyond levels experienced since the founding of the court.”
- “The lack of a full complement of judges in the Civil Division has prevented the Court from devoting necessary additional judicial resources to the Landlord and Tenant Branch, to reduce the delays and backlogs in housing and eviction cases, a critical need across the city post-pandemic.”
- “In the Probate and Tax Division, each year, four Associate Judges handle over 10,000 probate cases and over 3,000 tax cases, with individual caseloads of more than 3,200 per Associate Judge — not including post-conviction criminal matters.”
The list of burdens goes on.
So, too, crime in all its ugly and deadliest forms. So, too, the catcalls from Capitol Hill — and cheap shots suggesting that city leaders are oblivious to the mayhem in our streets. The flow of arrests and prosecutions flooding the courts speaks otherwise.
Less heard, until now, is talk about the judicial emergency crippling our court system — a danger of the Senate and Biden’s own making. The D.C. court system can’t function without judges. Benches are empty. White House and Senate, do your part. Do your duty.
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