One of the biggest issues facing the legal sector today is the present and growing court backlog. It’s become so severe that task forces from the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) and individual states are exploring changes to court procedures to ensure access and speed to resolution. In a recent article, reporter Zach Needles wrote, “Under pressure from backlogs, judges have zero patience for discovery delays … Right now may be the worst time in history to try a judge’s patience.”

To understand the severity and size of the backlog, one need to only look at a few examples. Ross Kartez, partner at Ruskin Moscou & Faltischek, tallied 2,000 trial-ready cases in New York’s Nassau County alone. Even if each trial lasted one day and the court operated 24/7, it would take years to process them, by which time another 4,000 cases would be sitting in backlog. The Washington Examiner reported that pending civil cases filed in federal court grew to 590,288 in 2021 from 397,492 the year prior—nearly a 49% change.

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