Chief U.S. District Judge for the Middle District of Florida Marcia Morales Howard presented the annual State of the District Report to members of the Jacksonville Federal Bar Association on Jan. 28.
It was Howard’s first such report since she succeeded former Chief Judge Timothy Corrigan in November.
The report was presented at the Bryan Simpson United States Courthouse.
Howard said she is continuing Corrigan’s philosophy of having a positive and collegial outlook in performing the duties of chief judge.
Something else that is holding over from her predecessor, Howard said, is the biggest challenge facing the federal court in the district that stretches from Jacksonville to Fort Myers.
“We have an exploding population, an increasing caseload and not enough judges,” Howard said. Congress has not authorized any new federal district judgeships since 1990. Since then, case filings are up an average of 30% nationwide.
“This is causing serious difficulty for courts across the country. The Middle District is no exception,” Howard said.
Of the 15 judgeships in the Middle District, 12 are filled with what Howard called “active judges.” Judges who have left full-time service continue to carry a caseload to keep the cases moving, Howard said.
Howard said the national average caseload is 502 cases per judge. In the Middle District, the average is 693 cases.
The Middle District ranks 14th among the 94 District Courts in the nation in the number of cases filed annually – about 11,000 cases – but the Middle District is 10th in the nation for the shortest time from filing to disposition, Howard said.
Federal courts across the U.S. had high hopes last year for a bipartisan bill that would have created hundreds of new judgeships, including five new seats in the Middle District. The legislation was approved by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
“Then on Dec. 23, President Biden vetoed it,” Howard said.
She said the effort to convince the government to add more judgeships will not stop with that defeat.
“It’s not about us judges. It’s about making sure the people of the Middle District of Florida can get their cases to trial. We don’t know if the new Congress will act, but we have not given up.”