Courts & Court Administration
This page brings together some resources to look at courts:
- empirical studies of courts
- statistics about court operations
- organizations concerned with judicial administration
Empirical Studies of Courts
Empirical legal studies uses analytical tools from the social sciences (e.g., economics, political science, psychology) to look at legal institutions. See our guide:
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Empirical Legal Studies [Gallagher Law Library]Introduction to empirical legal studies, with resources for learning about research methods.
To sample a variety of papers, see these SSRN eLibraries:
Not familiar with SSRN? See our guide:
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SSRN [Gallagher Law Library]The Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is an open-access repository where authors can post papers and researchers can find and download them.
Courts
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The Behavior of Federal Judges: A Theoretical and Empirical Study of Rational Choice by Publication Date: 2013 -
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The Oxford Handbook of Law and Economics. Volume 3: Public Law and Legal Institutions by Call Number: (online)Publication Date: 2017
Organizations
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Federal Judicial Center
Produces reports, benchbooks, training materials, and other educational publications for the judiciary. Site includes biographies of federal judges since 1789. -
National Judicial College
"the only educational institution in the United States that teaches courtroom skills to judges of all types from all over the country, Indian Country and abroad." -
RAND Institute for Civil Justice
Think tank "dedicated to making the civil justice system more efficient and more equitable."
Federal Judges & Courts
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Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, 1789-PresentSearchable directory from the Federal Judicial Center. You can "create customized lists of judges based on various criteria, including nominating president, type of court, dates of service, and demographic groups." You can also download the entire data set.
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Diversity on the BenchFederal Judicial Center list of federal court judges who are or were African American, American Indian, Asian American, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, and/or women. Links to entries in Biographical Directory of Federal Judges.
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US Courts Statistics & ReportsIncludes detailed caseload statistics.
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TRACfed
"Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) is a data gathering, data research, and data distribution organization associated with Syracuse University. Transactional refers to data about individual activities. Data collected from the federal government, mostly under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is made available to the American people via our massive data warehouse."
UW users may set up "Web Lockers" to save results. -
SCOTUSblog Stat Pack
Stats on decisions, voting combinations, etc.
Stat Pack Archive goes back to October Term 1995.
State Courts
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Court Statistics Project [National Center for State Courts]Various publications. Interactive Data Displays.
Washington Courts
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Caseloads of the Courts of Washington
Cases filed and resolved at each level of court.. -
Washington Courts: Resources, Publications, and Reports
Some reports listed on this page include statistics or survey data—the Civil Legal Needs Study Update (2015).
E-Newsletters on Courts - Free
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Fix the Court e-newsletter"Fix the Court is a nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) organization that advocates for non-ideological 'fixes' that would make the federal courts, and primarily the U.S. Supreme Court, more open and more accountable to the American people."
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National Center for Access to JusticeBlog, with option to sign up for email updates.
"NCAJ is an independent organization, but we make our home at Fordham Law School." -
National Center for State Courts Newsletters
Newsletters include:- @ The Center: NCSC's flagship e-newsletter highlights major projects, publications and conferences. Weekly.
- Judical Conduct Reporter: Quarterly.
- Jur-E Bulletin: A weekly jury management newsletter.
- Justice Everywhere: Quarterly news & jobs bulletin with updates on NCSC’s work to create more equitable and transparent justice systems around the world.
- Backgrounder: Designed to provide the media with statistics and facts related to current issues of interest.
- Civil Justice Initiative: Quarterly update on the Civil Justice Initiative’s resources, opportunities, and tools.
- Connected: NCSC and CCPIO follow the impact of new media on the courts.
- Behavioral Health Alerts: Monthly, from the SJI-funded National Initiative to improve the court and community response to mental illness and co-occurring disorders.
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US Courts News Updates
News releases from the United States Courts. Look for subscription box in the right column. -
Washington State Courts Email Updates
Sign up for notifications of new opinions, court orders, rule changes, or press releases.
E-Clips (Judicial News) compiles links to news articles of interest to the courts. Articles are posted each day and are organized by topic.