Backlog’s not going away.

A simple search engine query for “civil courts backlog” will yield hundreds and thousands of links that all say the same thing, that it’s not going away any time soon and things are unlikely to ever return to pre-Covid functionality.

Every US court jurisdiction, from the Federal Court right the way down to the District Courts is literally drowning in the backlog of cases that have piled up since the Pandemic struck. Not that it was a bastion of efficiency before the pandemic…

On average, the backlog of cases has grown by 30 percent. Justice systems around the world are all compromised.

But let’s get real here, the civil courts backlog existed even before Covid spread around the country and with Covid the entire justice system has ground to a dangerous halt.

Why? The answer is simple. American courts are overburdened, going to trial for cases that could easily be resolved using alternative dispute resolution solutions such as online arbitration.

But before we get to that, let’s take a look at what lawyers, judges, and people seeking judicial redress are saying.

What are people in the Justice System saying about the growing Civil Courts backlog?

wooden gavel and bronze scales of justice

Transport yourself back in time to early 2020 and just imagine asking a judge or attorney to predict the situation if a global pandemic were to wreak havoc on the justice system, creating a backlog of cases the length of 10 football fields.

You would have probably been met with strange looks and an admission that your morbid suggestion would mean that the courts would never be able to dig themselves out.

Bring yourself back to reality, and this is exactly where the US Justice system finds itself.

A report by Thomson Reuters published in August 2021 found that the average backlog for state and local courts in the US increased by one-third during the pandemic.

In the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on State & Local Courts Study 2021, a survey of more than 238 judges and other court professionals found that the average backlog in US courts before the COVID-19 pandemic was 958 cases. That backlog increased to 1,274 in the last year.

One-third of US courts saw their case backlogs increase by more than 5% in the last year, and another 23% saw their backlogs increase by 1% to 5%.

Tellingly, the report states: “Even in the best of times, the nation’s courts consistently battle case backlogs for a variety of reasons. When you add a public health crisis into that equation, it is easy to see why the backlog situation may become much more difficult to manage.”

New Jersey now has a civil court backlog that is twice what it is before the Pandemic, with the prominent Epstein Law Firm, projecting that this figure could double again.

Georgia estimates that it will take three years and a staggering $60 million dollars to dig through the current court backlog.

The justice system is trying but it can’t do much with its limited resources. Massachusetts for example has taken over a grand ballroom kitted out with pianos and wooden dancefloors to try and farm out satellite jury locations. If it wasn’t so serious, it would be funny. But it isn’t a laughing matter at all.

In Bexar County, Texas, the system is only processing one felony, one misdemeanor and one civil jury trial per day.

If you really want to quantify the enormity of the problem, just take a look at the Covid Notices section of the US Courts website. It makes for very dire reading.

So will the civil courts backlog ever be cleared?

The consensus amongst legal professionals is that t it is very unlikely that the courts’ backlog will be cleared anytime in the foreseeable future.

Troublingly, many agree that court systems are broken beyond repair and that Covid was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Some jurisdictions have tried to leverage technology to improve the situation, but traditional court systems are simply not yet geared up for online activities.