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The Trend:

With hopes of beginning in earnest to chip away at growing case backlogs this fall potentially dashed by the Delta variant, judges are increasingly looking to clear room on their dockets by pushing civil litigants to settle.

The Driver:

Just a few months ago, court leaders were gearing up for a return to something resembling normalcy and the opportunity to finally begin getting their arms around case backlogs that had swelled during the pandemic.

But even with courthouses beginning to reopen and in-person proceedings resuming, COVID-19 surges in some parts of the country and concerns over the Delta variant have made clear that "business as usual" is still a long way off and clogged dockets are likely to persist.