This week, we complete our review of the docket data from the Appellate Court, covering the years 2011 through 2021.

Below is the data for new civil filings at the Appellate Court.  Filings in the First District were comparatively stable from 2011 through 2015, declining by only 25 new filings overall (from 2134 to 2109).  But filings drifted downward in the years that followed: to 1867 in 2016, 1844 in 2017, 1644 in 2018 and 1637 in 2019.  But of course, the docket completely collapsed in 2020 as the pandemic set in, and the First District saw only 843 new filings in 2020 and 926 new civil filings last year.

The 57% drop in filings in the First District is far higher than declines elsewhere in the state.  The Second District actually increased its docket in the early years of the decade, from 684 new civil filings in 2011 to 770 in 2012.  The number was still at 715 in 2015.  But the numbers dropped after that, with the Second reporting 636 new civil matters in 2016, 524 in 2017, 546 in 2018, 599 in 2019, 409 in 2020 and 418 in 2021.

The decline in the Third District across the decade was third largest in the state (behind the First and the Fourth).  There were 502 new filings in 2011 and 529 in 2012.  The number dropped into the 400s until 2017 before dropping to 338 in 2018, 361 in 2019, 235 in 2020 and 302 in 2021.

The Fourth District saw a decline of 42.78% in filings during the period.  There were 547 new civil filings in 2011.  That rose to 589 in 2012, but had fallen to 445 by 2016.  There were 363 in 2017, 314 in 2018, 371 in 2019, 257 in 2020 and 313 in 2021.  The Fifth District had the smallest decline in the state in new civil filings – only 32.2%.  The Fifth had 345 new cases in 2011, 368 by 2013, and was still at 353 in 2016.  After that, the Fifth District docket fell to 254 in 2017, 271 in 2018, 271 in 2019, 222 in 2020 and 234 in 2021.

Next time, we’ll review the data for criminal dockets across the same eleven year period.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Joseph Gage (no changes).