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The annual statistical report for the Vermont Judiciary presents
considerable detail about the cases
filed, disposed and pending in Vermont's courts: the Supreme Court,
Superior Courts, District
Courts, Family Courts, Vermont Traffic Bureau, Environmental Court and
Probate Courts.
Continuing the trend since its creation in 1990, the Family Court
again experienced a
significant growth in caseload, almost entirely in parentage cases
and requests of post judgment modification of child support and other divorce orders. The
Supreme Court had a
small increase in the number of appeals filed in Fiscal Year 1994. All
other courts - Superior,
District, Probate, Environmental, Traffic Bureau - saw continued small
declines in overall filings.
A summary table shows statewide comparisons
for the annual
filings and end-of-year pending caseload for each type of case in each
court.
Highlights of the report include:
Supreme Court
Supreme Court filings increased slightly during FY1994, with 657 new
cases added compared to
649 in FY1993. Six hundred thirty four cases were closed. Although the
number of pending
cases increased, from 508 cases at the end of FY1993 to 531 cases at the
end of FY1994, there were fewer older cases; the number of cases not resolved within
2 years
decreased by nearly 11%.
Superior Court
The number of cases filed in Vermont's Superior Courts decreased from
FY1993 to
FY1994, but less sharply than the decrease from FY1992 to FY1993.
Court Civil,
Court Jury and Appeals of Government Action filings decreased by 1.2%,
2.7% and 8.9% while
Post Conviction Criminal Review filings increased by 8.7 percent.
The Superior Court backlog continued to decrease substantially, with 11%
fewer cases pending at
the end of FY1994 compared to FY1993; cases over 1 year old decreased by
eighteen percent.
District Court
Vermont's District Courts also showed an overall reduction in the number
of cases added during
FY1994 while the pending caseload for most dockets remained at the FY1993
level. There was, however, a 4.6 percent increase in felony cases filed
during
FY1994. A sharp increase in felonies filed during the last quarter of
FY1994 - 736 new cases
were added between April and June of 1994 compared to 621 in 1993 -
contributed to the eleven
percent increase in the number of felonies pending at the end of the
year. Similarly, while
misdemeanor filings decreased by 2% in FY1994, the pending caseload was
virtually identical to
that at the end of FY1993 due to an increase in cases added in the last
quarter.
The Small Claims backlog continued to decrease in FY1994, with 2,016
cases pending at the end
of the year compared to 2,164 at the end of FY1993, a reduction of nearly
seven percent. Filings
also decreased, with 1,406 fewer new cases added during FY1994 than in
FY1993.
There were also reductions in the number of Civil Suspension, Traffic
Appeal and Fish & Wildlife,
Snowmobile and Boating cases filed in District Court.
Uniform Traffic Ticket filings increased 34 percent, from 1,118 cases
added in FY1993 to 1,498
in FY1994, and there was a 28% increase in cases pending at the end of
the year.
Vermont Traffic Bureau
There were 72,746 traffic complaints filed at the Vermont Traffic Bureau
during FY1994, a 4.7
percent decrease from the 76,363 cases filed in FY1993. The Traffic
Bureau's backlog decreased
by 4.4%, with 11,732 cases pending on June 30, 1994 compared to 12,253 on
June 30, 1993.
Family Court
The domestic docket showed significant increases in FY1994.
There
were 5,196 new Post Judgment filings, which involve the modification of
existing orders - such as
child support, parent/child contact and spousal maintenance - during
FY1994 compared to 4,498
in FY1993, a 15.5% increase. Filings of parentage, separation and
desertion cases increased by
nearly 11 percent, from 1,679 new cases added in FY1993 to 1,858 cases
added during FY1994.
An unusually large number of cases filed during the last quarter
contributed to the increase in the
backlog of these dockets.
Juvenile, Interstate Child Support Enforcement (U.R.E.S.A.) and Mental
Health filings decreased
from FY1993 to FY1994 while 1.4 percent more Relief from Domestic Abuse
cases were filed.
Environmental Court
There were 51 new filings and 56 cases disposed during FY1994.
Probate Court
Overall, there was a 3.9 percent decrease in new Probate Court filings
during FY1994; the
Guardianship and Testamentary Trusts dockets grew by 6% while there were
fewer Decedent
Estates and Adoption cases filed than in FY1993. The number of cases
pending at the end of the
year grew slightly, from 13,272 in FY1993 to 13,366 in FY1994. |
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