New judges will ease workload

AP ^ | 6/11/5 | LISA CORNWELL

[SmithL]

CINCINNATI - The chief judge of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals expects the addition of two Michigan judges to long-standing vacancies to help the court - the slowest acting among the nation's 12 regional courts - reduce its caseload.

The nominations of Judge David McKeague and Judge Richard Griffin were approved on Thursday by the GOP-controlled Senate after a long partisan tug-of-war between Republicans and Democrats.

"We strive to decide cases as efficiently as we can and having more judges will be make it easier to have the litigators served and the system of justice administered," Chief Judge Danny Boggs said Friday.

Boggs acknowledged the Cincinnati-based court has been among the slowest of the regional courts in recent years, but said the time between the court receiving all the briefs in a case and when it hears oral arguments has been cut from 10-12 months to 5-7 months. That reduction has occurred over about the past year and a half.

Boggs said that in terms of population, the 6th Circuit is the second largest among the regional appeals circuits - behind the 9th Circuit, which covers nine Western states - and is in the top three or four in the number of cases.

The 6th Circuit hears appeals from Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and Michigan. It had 4,693 appeals filed in the last calendar year and disposed of 4,628 in that same time period, although the cases disposed of included ones filed prior to 2004.

At any given time there are about 3,600 cases pending in the court, Clerk Leonard Green said.

The latest government statistics for the courts are for fiscal year 2004, which ended Sept. 30. Those statistics show that the 6th Circuit was the slowest among regional circuit courts in terms of the median time from filing notice of appeal to disposition of the case. The median time for all the regional circuits was 10.5 months, 16.8 months for the 6th Circuit. The court also was ranked the slowest in 2002 and 2003.

"I think without a doubt that filling vacancies will help," said Dick Carelli, a spokesman for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. "No one can predict the future, but as vacancies diminish, court speed improves and statistics show that the median time that it takes for a case to run its course shortens."

Griffin and McKeague are the first judges to join the 6th Circuit in more than two years. The court, which has been short-handed for years, is the final stop for almost all criminal and civil cases that are appealed in its coverage area.

"Generally we appreciate coming closer to full strength," said Boggs. "I was the 15th judge when I joined the court, and now 20 years later, we are only up to 14."

At one point, the court was down to eight of its 16 allocated judgeships. The court also uses semi-retired appeals court judges and visiting federal court judges.

Mike Cox, Michigan's attorney general, also is optimistic that the filled vacancies will speed up the court's handling of cases.

"It appears that the judges have been working extremely hard not to fall even farther behind," said Cox. "But 25 percent of the judges that were supposed to be on the bench haven't been there. Now, maybe we can get judicial confirmation off the front pages and get on with the work that needs to be done."

Congress has not acted on two other Michigan judges nominated for the remaining vacancies.

With the newest additions, the court will now have five judges from Ohio, three from Michigan, three from Kentucky and three from Tennessee.

The two Michigan judges are joining a court where judges nominated by Republican presidents will now have an 8-6 majority.

Griffin, 53, has been a judge on Michigan's Court of Appeals since 1988. McKeague, 58, has been a federal district judge in Michigan since 1992.

[SmithL]

Reid was a party to the deal that derailed the filibusters, while Frist was not. Somehow, I think Frist is sleeping better tonight than Reid is.

heh heh heh

[NonValueAdded]

Where were these metrics about the backlog while the RATs were sitting on these judges? They should have daily hammered the Michigan senators over the head with the case backlog and made it a campaign issue in the last election.

[taxesareforever]

I have no sympathy for judges and their caseloads. They are the ones who have decided to take on any Tom, Dick or Harry case no matter how frivilous it is. Please, judges, don't expact any tears from me for your workloads. You wanted it, you created it now live with it.

[Republican Wildcat]

This is the appellate court which does not have original jurisidiction over the cases. The district courts may have immediately dismissed them, but the dismissals can still be appealed.