Federal Court Cases from 100 U.S. Court Offices

Federal Court Cases originate from 100 court offices throughout the United States, providing an official public record of federal court business. The data collection, updated bi-annually, contains information obtained at case filing and termination points, with the unit of analysis being a single case for appellate and civil data and a single defendant for criminal data.

Use Cases

• Analyze case processing timelines using filing and termination dates across 100 court offices.
• Study patterns in case dismissal and judicial decisions by case type and court location.
• Examine trial procedures and pretrial dispositions segmented by civil, criminal, and appellate case categories.

Strengths

• Data originates from 100 court offices, ensuring broad geographic coverage of the U.S. federal judiciary.
• Updated bi-annually with annual data, providing regular updates to the public record.
• Provides official public records at two key points in a case's lifecycle: filing and termination.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, column details, and sample data are unavailable, limiting initial assessment of dataset scale and structure.
• The unit of analysis differs between case types (single case vs. single defendant), which may complicate cross-type comparisons.
• The description does not specify the exact time range of the collected data, limiting temporal analysis.

Provenance

Source

Federal Judicial Center, Department of Justice.

Collection Method

Information obtained from court offices at case filing and termination points.

Freshness

Updated bi-annually; last updated 2025-11-14.

Geography

United States federal courts.