A bill has been introduced into Congress that would give D.C. Superior Court three additional judges — though the court’s caseload has dropped precipitously in the past two decades.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., says the three new slots will correct an “anomaly” caused by the Family Court Act. Under that act, three judges were “temporarily” assigned to Family Court, but the total number of judges in the budget was not raised.
That means that judicial nominees are then left waiting — sometimes up to 18 months — before a job on the bench opens up, Norton said. This has made private-practice lawyers reluctant to be nominated, she said.
But are the extra judges really needed? An Examiner analysis of the court’s annual reports found that the civil and criminal caseload of the Superior Court has fallen dramatically. Between 1991 and 2005, the number of civil cases dropped by 41 percent and the number of criminal cases dropped by 24 percent, The Examiner found.
Yet, even as the caseloads were dropping, the number of judges was increasing. There were 82 judicial officers in 1991; in 2005, there were 109.
Superior Court Chief Judge Rufus G. King III said the extra judges are important. He said the apparent decline in civil cases ismostly due to a huge drop in landlord-tenant cases. Those cases are typically handled by one or two judges, so the drop in civil cases is not across-the-board.
“The decline looks big, but in terms of workload, it’s a decline in some of the most summary cases rather than the more complicated ones,” he said.
Besides, “a downturn of even seemingly a large magnitude doesn’t mean we can go home at 4:30 in the afternoon,” King said.
Asked why the extra judges were still necessary, Doxie McCoy, Norton’s spokeswoman, said: “Because that’s what the [courts] are asking for.”
McCoy then said she was unaware the caseloads at the Superior Court had fallen. She asked The Examiner to send her a copy of a chart documenting the decline.
