Judge Mike Brown, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta. (Courtesy photo)

An Atlanta judge has eliminated the backlog that for a year dogged him as the federal jurist carrying the most civil case motions pending more than six months.

James Hatten, the chief clerk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, said Judge Michael Brown has leveled a mountain of old motions that last September reached as high as 204. That is when the most recent caseload data were collected by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts as required by the Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990.

Brown, whom Hatten said declined to comment, also led all federal judges in March 2019 with 177 motions pending six months. Sixty-two of those motions had been filed before Brown joined the court in January 2018.

But by the end of this March, Hatten said, Brown had zero motions pending more than six months and expects the same result by the end of the next reporting period.

Asked how the judge made such progress, Hatten said, "He was working on a lot of different things." Hatten agreed with a question suggesting that many of the pending motions that piled up may have had decisions that were almost finished.

"Most of this was trying to get it right," Hatten said.

Five other federal district judges carried at least 100 motions pending more than six months in the September 2019 report, which was released in March. They were:

• Chief Judge Wilma Lewis of the U.S. Virgin Islands (141, up from 125 in March 2019);
• Judge Lawrence Vilardo of the Western District of New York (116, down from 156);
• Judge Richard Arcara, also from the Western District of the New York (112, down from 115);
• Judge Troy Nunley of the Eastern District of California (109, down from 133); and
• Judge William Kuntz of the Eastern District of New York (100, up from 71).

Comments from judges and clerks suggest staffing problems—and two Category 5 hurricanes that hit the Virgin Islands—contribute to the backlogs.

Neither Kuntz nor Arcara could be reached.

Catching up in Buffalo

In Buffalo, New York, a clerk for Vilardo said the Western District has waited since 1992 for Congress to grant a request for a fifth district court judgeship.

"Since he took office in October 2015 until December 2019, Judge Vilardo was the only active district judge in Buffalo," wrote Allison P. Gioia in an email to the Daily Report. "In fact, it took over four years to fill a second vacancy in Buffalo that had existed in the district before Judge Vilardo was confirmed."

Gioia said more equitable case reassignment within the district helped Vilardo tackle his backlog, which fell 25% in the period ending last September. "And by working six and very often seven days a week," she added, "he had only 35 motions pending over six months by March 31, 2020.  And he hopes and expects that number to get even lower."

California Caseloads

In California's Eastern District, a request for comment from Nunley, whose six-month motions fell from 133 to 109, led to a response from the court's chief clerk, Keith Holland. He shared documents and memos detailing what judges there described as a "caseload crisis" in a 2018 letter to their U.S. senators.

"It is not debatable that the resources of our District have been deficient for three decades," they wrote. They noted that Eastern District judges carry about 900 cases, compared to 425 for the average district judge, and for more than a decade, the Judicial Conference of the United States has recommended Congress create four to six new judgeships for the district.

In February, Judge Dale Drozd of Fresno issued emergency procedures for civil and criminal cases to handle a shortage of judges that "are not, in the undersigned's view, conducive to the fair administration of justice. However, the court has been placed in an untenable position in which it simply has no choice."

Irma and Maria

Lewis told the Daily Report in an email that she inherited a backlog of motions from cases when she joined the court in 2011.

"For example, although at the end of my first 6-month reporting period on March 31, 2012, I had only 32 reportable motions, that number increased to over 200 reportable motions during the course of the next one or two 6-month periods as additional cases were transferred to my docket," she wrote.

Over the years, Lewis would cut the backlog to the low 100s, only to see the docket, which includes many "motions heavy" civil cases, push the numbers back over 200.

In August 2013, Lewis became the chief judge of the district, adding "a significant amount of responsibilities associated with the management of the administrative affairs of the Court.

"I have managed the Court through two Government shut-downs, a period of sequestration, an ongoing major capital renovation project at one of our courthouses, two Category 5 hurricanes in September 2017, and now, COVID-19," she added.

Hurricanes Irma and Maria led to a three-month closure of the court. Those events, plus two eight-week trials, "created a pressing need thereafter to focus on other pending criminal matters that required attention in view of Speedy Trial Act considerations," she added.

During the most recent reporting period, when the number of motions pending six months rose from 125 to 141, Lewis said she was on medical leave for approximately seven weeks.

"We have been fortunate to have the assistance of visiting judges over the years," Lewis said in response to a question about how to reduce the backlog. "However, we have not been over-indulgent in the use of their services, recognizing that they have responsibilities in their own districts. A more aggressive and strategic use of such resources would likely be beneficial."