TRENDS IN CASELOADS DURING COVID-19

TRENDS IN CASELOADS

DURING COVID-19

Resiliency of California Courts During COVID-19 Pandemic

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early spring 2020, California courts have transformed

business operations to remain accessible while addressing public health and safety concerns arising from

the pandemic. Not surprisingly, case filings—the initiation of a legal action—significantly dropped during the

initial surge of the pandemic. Between March and August of 2020, case filings fell by 39 percent compared

to filings in the same period of 2019. At the same time, case dispositions—the final settlement or

determination in a case—dropped by 49 percent, illustrating the challenges to court operations resulting

from physical distancing requirements and a reduction in resources. Despite these challenges, California

courts have implemented technology and operational changes to help maintain safe access to justice,

including remote and online solutions for court users. As filing volumes began to return to pre-pandemic

levels this past year, case dispositions increased as well.

National Case Filings Data

A recent study by the Court Statistics Project of the National Center for State Courts (NCSC)

confirmed

California findings with the experience of courts in other states: the number of case filings since the onset

of the pandemic were pointedly lower than historical averages. According to this research—based on data

from 12 geographically diverse state court systems across the country, not including California—2020 case

filings significantly lagged 2019 filings in civil, domestic relations, dependency, juvenile, traffic, and criminal

cases. For these six case types, not a single month of filings data (post February 2020) met or exceeded

2019 filings, and only probate filings for these 12 states returned to normal by June of 2020. As courts

reopen in other states, researchers anticipate a surge in civil, domestic relations, and dependency filings

that will challenge state courts across the United States in 2021 and beyond, especially as debt, eviction,

and foreclosure cases rise as a result of the pandemic.

NCSC, 2020 data shed light on pandemic-related backlogs, @ the Center, www.ncsc.org/newsroom/at-the-

center/2021/2020-data-shed-light-on-pandemic-related-backlogs (as of Sept. 14, 2021).

TRENDS IN CASELOADS

DURING COVID-19

California Case Filings

Unlike the national trend, California’s felony and civil unlimited case volumes begin to quickly return to typical

volumes. Like national data, probate estates/trusts cases quickly returned to typical levels, but California’s

case filings exceeded even historical levels.

California Backlogs

Typically, court case filings exceed case dispositions, and when dispositions lag filings, courts accumulate

new cases faster than they can close current cases, in turn causing current caseloads to grow. Before the

pandemic, court clearance rates—defined as dispositions as a percentage of filings—averaged 86 percent.

During the early part of the pandemic, California courts, like other state court systems, saw clearance rates

drop and backlogs increase. Between March and August of 2020, California’s clearance rate dropped to 73

percent. Areas that experienced the largest reduction in clearance rates, and consequently the largest

backlogs, were criminal case types: felony, nontraffic misdemeanor, and traffic misdemeanor.

However, California rapidly deployed the use of remote proceedings, leading to an improvement in

clearance rates in some case types and, therefore, a lower likelihood of backlogs. Areas that relied heavily

on remote proceedings, such as juvenile justice (delinquency) and juvenile dependency, saw large

improvements in clearance rates, and case dispositions even exceeded pre-pandemic levels. Almost all

courts in California are now offering remote proceedings in at least one case type, and 38 courts made

remote proceedings available in all case types.

TRENDS IN CASELOADS

DURING COVID-19

In some areas, case filings dropped significantly, but a major backlog of cases is not anticipated. For

example, infractions cases are not experiencing a backlog because traffic and commute patterns were

disrupted and fewer citations were issued—essentially, it is workload that never happened. In the area of

unlawful detainer (evictions), it’s anticipated that some of the cases not filed during the pandemic may be

filed when eviction moratoriums expire. However, because of government support programs and the

additional time people have to address their housing situations, how much backlog there will be in this area

is unclear.

Looking Forward

Technology changes, operational enhancements, remote services, and other innovations have positioned

California to manage workload well as filings increase across many case types. Continued funding and

policy changes will allow courts to address backlog demands and increase innovation. Further technological

adoption is essential to maintain and improve access to justice for all Californians.