Law Librarian Blog

2007 Wiretap Report Released

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has released the 2007 Wiretap Report which reports that state and federal judges issued a total of 2,208 orders authorizing the interception of wire, oral, or electronic communications -- a 20% increase over the previous year.  The top three states for applications approved by state court judges are California, New York, and New Jersey.
[gvd] 

Impact of CAFA Study Finds 72 Percent Increase in Class Actions

The Impact of the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 on the Federal Courts, Fourth Interim Report to the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Civil Rules (April 2008) (pdf) found a 72 percent increase in class action cases for comparable periods in 2001 and 2007 in 88 federal district courts. Much of that increase was in federal question cases, especially labor class actions and class actions filed under federal consumer protection statutes. Since CAFA’s effective date in February 2005, however, the Federal Judicial Center study also observed an increase in the number of class actions initiated in the federal courts on the basis of diversity of citizenship jurisdiction.

From the summary of key findings:

• There has been a dramatic increase in the number of diversity class actions filed as original proceedings in the federal courts in the post-CAFA period. The pre-CAFA average of such filings per month was 11.9; the post-CAFA average was 34.5 per month.
• Diversity class action removals increased in the immediate post-CAFA period over their 2004 levels but have been trending downward since 2005. In the last months of the study period, diversity removals were at levels similar to those in the pre-CAFA period.
• The increase in diversity class action original proceedings was widespread. Diversity class action original proceedings increased overall in the districts in eleven of the twelve circuits, when we compared filings for calendar years 2002 and 2003 with those for the last two years of the study period, July 1, 2005–June 30, 2007. Diversity class action original proceedings also increased between the two time periods in all but one of the districts with substantial numbers of diversity class actions during the study period.
• The results we found for diversity class action removals were more varied. When we compared removals in calendar years 2002 and 2003 with those in the last two years of the study period, we found that they decreased in the last two years of the study period in five circuits. However, when we analyzed the districts separately, we found that most of the districts with substantial numbers of diversity class actions experienced some increase in diversity removals.
• The increase in diversity class actions is due largely to increases in the numbers of contracts, consumer protection/fraud, and torts-property damage class actions being filed in or removed to federal court in the post-CAFA period. Tortspersonal injury cases have not increased in the post-CAFA period.

[JH]

Alert:Invalid Subpoenas

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has posted an alert that reports have been received of totally bogus e-mail grand jury subpoenas, purportedly sent by a U.S. District Court.  The emails are not a valid communication from a federal court - recipients are warned not to open any links or download any information in the email.  Law enforcement authorities have been notified.

For the original alert: http://www.uscourts.gov/newsroom/2008/alert.cfm [gvd]

Editor's Note: With this post, Gretchen E. Van Dam joins Law Librarian Blog as a contributing editor. The Circuit Librarian for the Library of the U.S. Courts of the Seventh Circuit since 2000, Gretchen received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and both her J.D. and M.S.L.S. from Wayne State University where she was an editor of the Wayne Law Review.  She is currently serving an elected term to the Federal Libraries Information Center Committee (FLICC) and is Vice President/President Elect of the Chicago Assn of Law Libraries (CALL). 

Gretchen has been an adjunct professor of law at the IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, the Loyola University Chicago School of Law, and the John Marshall Law School, teaching courses in legal research and writing.  She currently is an adjunct faculty member in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University in Chicago teaching classes in legal research and law librarianship.

I'm certain we will all benefit from the posts Gretchen publishes here. She is also tasked with sending this Chicago expatriate Portillo's Italian Beef sandwiches each month. Gretchen wisely declined my offer to send her Cincinnati's god-awful chili in exchange. [JH]   

Stanford Professor Records 9th Circuit's Oral History

Interesting article from the National Law Journal:

"Stanford law professor Michele Landis Dauber got a front-row seat on the workings of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals 10 years ago at the feet of Judge Stephen Reinhardt. She was his law clerk.

Now she's learning all about the court from Reinhardt once again, but from a decidedly different vantage point.

Dauber has volunteered to take Reinhardt's oral history. She is one of a corps of lawyers and professors who donate essential sweat equity to the Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society's Oral History Program. That group has collected more than 150 interviews from judges across the circuit. They include both district court and circuit judges."  [RJ]

Future Trends in the State Courts

From the National Center for State Courts: "The Future Trends in State Courts, produced annually, is intended to support courts in their strategic planning efforts and stimulate thought and discussion about important current issues in the courts.  The report has been a product of Knowledge and Information Services (formerly information Services) since the early nineties.  Each Trends report is comprised of a series of individual articles by experts in the field."  [RJ] 

2007 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary

From the U.S. Supreme Court.  [RJ]

A Decade of Change in the Federal Courts Caseload: Fiscal Years 1997-2006

From the Third Branch (Newsletter of the Federal Courts): "Supreme Court decisions, shifting Administration priorities, new legislation, and numerous other factors caused the composition of the federal courts’ caseload to change over the past decade. Between September 30, 1997 and September 30, 2006, appeals court filings steadily climbed, district court caseloads fluctuated, and bankruptcy filings hit a record high before tumbling following the enactment of sweeping bankruptcy reform legislation. What are the identifiable caseload trends and what are the forces behind the changing nature of the federal courts’ caseload?"  [RJ]