COVID did not cause a backlog—studies prove

Dec 2 (Reuters) - Expectations of a massive federal court case backlog brought on by courthouse closures and other COVID-19 pandemic-related disruptions did not come to fruition thanks to a decline in arrests and newly-filed lawsuits, according to a new study.

The Federal Judicial Center, the federal judiciary's research arm, in a report, opens new tab released this week confirmed that the pandemic led to a nationwide slowdown in criminal and civil cases as public health concerns delayed trials.

But, the report found those backlogs on a national level were offset by a comparable 29% decline in federal prosecutors charging new defendants during the first two years of the pandemic and litigants filing 6% fewer civil cases during that period.

"Courts were able to effectively clear their dockets despite pandemic-related delays at least in part because fewer new criminal defendants and civil cases came on to their dockets during the pandemic," the report said.

Researchers found that while about two-fifths of district courts emerged from the pandemic's second year with more pending cases than expected, on a national basis case backlogs had returned to pre-pandemic levels by March 2022.

The study's authors noted their numbers for civil cases were ultimately just estimates as they excluded the thousands of lawsuits consolidated in multidistrict litigation proceedings due to a lack an established convention for counting them. MDLs comprised over 70% of the federal civil caseload in 2021.

The lack of a severe backlog came despite expectations in the early days of the pandemic that pending cases would quickly accumulate and exacerbate federal case backlogs as courts closed their doors and suspended jury trials to slow the virus's spread.

Two years after the U.S. government in March 2020 declared COVID-19 a national emergency, the median criminal and the civil case moved through the federal courts 44% and 7% slower, respectively, than compared to recent pre-pandemic years.

The study said that trend was driven by a decline in cases being resolved.

While courts allowed for virtual hearings, jury trials could not be easily moved online, resulting in their suspension at the pandemic's outset prior to the widespread use of vaccines, which eliminated an incentive for parties to plead guilty or settle, the report said.

The sharpest declines in trials were in criminal cases, with the number of jury trials falling 52% in the first year of the pandemic compared to the five-year pre-pandemic average and remaining 27% down from that average in the second year, the report said.