Editor's note: This story was revised based on updated data from the Administrative Office of the Courts.

Case filings in New Jersey's state courts in 2019 posted a one-year decline of 1.9%, continuing a long-term trend toward reduced activity.

Filings of civil, criminal and family cases all saw significant declines in New Jersey courts in 2019. Moreover, the latest filing data shows the state's court system continues to experience a long-term decline in filings. From 2014, when the state court system saw 917,349 filings, to 2019′s total of 784,726, New Jersey's court system has seen a 13.8% reduction in cases filed.

Over the past five years, the number of cases filed in New Jersey courts have shown annual increases in one year and declines in four. In 2015, overall filings posted a one-year decline of 9.7%, and 2016 saw a decline of 3.4%. In 2017 there was a 3.2% increase in filings, followed by decreases of 2.3% in 2018 and 1.9% in 2019.

New Jersey is in step with other state courts around the nation that are experiencing a decline in the number of cases. The National Center for State Courts has documented a "pervasive and persistent" decline in caseloads in state courts nationwide that started in 2008. The pattern cuts across all categories of cases—civil, criminal, juvenile, domestic relations, even traffic violations—and across all states, the group reports. The group says the reason for the decline is unclear but suggests various reasons such as the complexity and cost of the legal process as well as courts' failure to embrace delivery of services through mobile devices.

"Trial court filings have been in a continual decline across the nation and New Jersey's filings are consistent with that long-term trend. The potential factors contributing to the decline are numerous and are often outside the court's control," said Pete McAleer, director of communications for the Administrative Office of the Courts.

The decline in filings is likely to have numerous reasons, said Kevin Costello, president of the New Jersey Association for Justice. He said one likely reason is the growing use of mandatory arbitration clauses. Clauses requiring arbitration of disputes first become commonplace in an employment context and in certain consumer disputes but are expanding to other types of cases such as internet commerce, said Costello, of Costello & Mains in Mount Laurel.

The improving state of the economy is another possible reason for a decline in court filings, said John Hogan, president of Trial Attorneys of New Jersey, a group whose mission is to "promote the litigation interests of the public, the bench and the bar."

A strong economy often translates to fewer filings of business litigation, said Hogan, who is with Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer in Woodbridge, New Jersey. In addition, a decrease in criminal filings could indicate a trend against prosecution of smaller matters, Hogan said.

Hogan said case volume for civil and family courts might be declining because parties are choosing alternate dispute resolution instead of filing a complaint in court.

"I don't think there is anything to be concerned about. I don't think this reflects negatively on the judiciary," Hogan said. "Over the years there have been concerns about a lack of judicial resources, but I don't think the statistics suggest that's the cause here."

Criminal Division filings statewide dropped 2.3% in 2019, with a total of 42,845 cases filed. Filings of postconviction relief cases and municipal appeals were roughly flat in 2019, while criminal postindictment filings, which account for most of the volume in the Criminal Division, fell 2.2%.

In the Family Division, filings dropped 3.7% in 2019, to a total of 258,504. The two largest categories of cases saw major declines in filing volume—so-called nondissolution cases saw a 5.4% decline in 2019 and cases in the dissolution category declined 3.5%. Dissolution cases concern disputes over children whose parents were married and nondissolution cases concern disputes about children whose parents were not married. Several other categories of cases in the Family Division also saw fewer filings in 2019. Abuse and neglect cases declined 15.5%, while child placement review cases fell 23.2% and termination-of-parental-rights cases fell 8.1%.

Meanwhile, a few other categories in the Family Division saw significant increases in 2019: criminal and quasi-criminal case filings grew 8.7%, while adoptions grew 3.5%.

The Civil Division saw the smallest decline in filings in 2019, with a 0.9% drop between 2018 and 2019. Total filings in the Civil Division were 489,352. In the Special Civil Part, which hears cases where the amount in controversy is under $15,000, as well as landlord-tenant disputes, filings saw a 1% decline in 2019. In the General Equity Part, which hears cases where the primary relief sought is equitable in nature, rather than for damages, filings declined 9% in 2019.

In the Probate Part, which hears contested probate cases and guardianship cases, filing volume in 2019 increased 1.3% from the previous year.

In the Civil Part, which hears cases over money damages, filing volume posted a 0.2% decrease in 2019.