Last time, we showed that although civil dockets were down a bit between 1997 and 2000 in the First and Fifth Districts, declines elsewhere in the state were negligible.  This time, we look at the criminal dockets for the same period.

The pattern was relatively similar on the criminal docket.  Across the four years, new criminal filings at the First District declined about eleven per cent, from 2,436 in 1997 to 2,176 in 2000.  New filings in the Second District were actually up – from 566 in 1997 to 737 in 1998, 665 in 1999 and 649 in 2000.  Third District filings were up too, from 458 in 1997 to 486 in 2000.  Fourth District filings fell about eight percent: 535 new cases in 1997, 467 in 1998, 479 in 1999 and 493 in 2000.  But once again, the Fifth District had the biggest decline of twenty-three percent.  In 1997, there were 346 new cases.  That fell to 272 in 1998, 290 in 1999 and 267 in 2000.

Next up, civil cases in the Appellate Court between 2001 and 2010.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Pom’ (no changes).