by Charles Toutant // NJ Law Journal
Fewer lawsuits are being filed in New Jersey state courts, a trend that’s persisted for at least a decade and is sparking fears the judicial system is becoming irrelevant for segments of the population.
New Jersey courts saw 815,922 cases filed in the civil, criminal and family divisions in 2018, which represents a marginal increase from 2017′s filing level. But more significantly, that’s still a 28 percent decline from the number of cases filed in 2008.
Filings of civil suits in New Jersey increased slightly in 2016 and 2017 but still declined 29 percent from 2008 to 2018. Meanwhile, criminal filings declined 23 percent and family court filings fell 28 percent in the past decade. In the same period, New Jersey’s population grew roughly 3 percent, from 8.6 million people to 8.9 million.
Some legal experts say the decrease indicates courts are failing their constituents. Those experts have also said it’s time to change the ways court systems go about their business.
Richard Schauffler of the National Center for State Courts said that a decline in filing volume, and resultant notions that courts are outliving their usefulness, are cause for concern.
“Courts exist to ensure that asymmetries of power do not dictate the outcome of disputes,” he wrote. “Making the best use of available resources and deploying them in the public interest requires that courts ask. What cases belong in court? How might we adjudicate those cases effectively and efficiently, in the eyes of those seeking justice? Courts need to sort out what factors they can influence (e.g., delay and costs that discourage civil litigation) from those they cannot (the divorce rate) and focus on improving the adjudication of cases that belong in court.”
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