The Real Business of the Courts

The court cases we hear about most often involve something extreme, but what is the usual, day-to-day business of the courts? We have put together a series of interactive views designed to give you a look under the hood of a large state judicial system you may have heard about, the Florida courts.

We hope to shed light on questions about the structure of the court system, the volume and type of cases it handles, and how the cases are resolved. For all of these questions, the answers can vary over time, over geography and over the types of events and resolutions being examined.

This opening view is for exploration of the data. It gives an overview of the changes in case filings and dispositions over the period 1986-2013, classified by the type of case. Since population growth and economic activity are believed to influence court caseloads, the display also shows economic and demographic data for the same timeframe.

This display initially features an animated tour of the different forms of visualization available for the various data elements; you can stop the animation to focus on the time path of a specific data item, or in some cases two items displayed together.

The second view shows how case filings and resolutions can vary over time in different divisions of court and different parts of the state. The map of Florida visualizes the structure of the state courts system and permits the user to select part of the state to examine using the big timeline. You can select at the county level, or by circuit (a grouping of counties) or district (a grouping of circuits).

There's also a bar chart that shows the relative number of each division of court and each type of case. Clicking any bar on the chart will limit the big timeline's display to the selected division of court or type of case. You can also choose to show population and economic data for the same time.

The big timeline shows the filings and dispositions for the selected region and case types, and the graphic below it shows the manner in which those cases were resolved. Initially, it aggregates the results over the entire 27 years, but if you click or brush on the timeline, the graphic will show the results for just that one year or set of years. Or you can click "start" to see how the resolutions changed over the entire period.

There are a few interesting stories revealed by this visualization, but the biggest one is the responsiveness of the courts to the recent economic downturn. Of course we saw a jump in mortgage foreclosure cases, but the data suggests that every division of court was affected; at first it was surprising to see birthrates spiking at the same time as unemployment, but on further reflection there is a good reason that should have been anticipated.

References and Sources

Our Process Book

Case filings and dispositions. Data provided upon request by State of Florida Office of State Courts Administrator from OSCA's Summary Reporting System.

Population Size and Caseload are Often Related National Center for State Courts.

National Trend declining case filings. Examining the Work of State Courts, National Center for State Courts (2012) (using 2010 data)