The Source for Crime and Justice Data

Description & Citation--Study No. 29281

Bibliographic Description

Study No.:

29281

Title:

Federal Court Cases: Integrated Data Base Appellate and Civil Pending Data, 2011

Principal Investigator(s):

Federal Judicial Center

Bibliographic Citation:

Federal Judicial Center. Federal Court Cases: Integrated Data Base Appellate and Civil Pending Data, 2011. ICPSR29281-v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2013-02-12. doi:10.3886/ICPSR29281.v2

Series:

Federal Court Cases: Integrated Database Series

Scope of Study

Summary:

The purpose of this data collection is to provide an official public record of the business of the federal courts. The data originate from district and appellate court offices throughout the United States. Information was obtained at two points in the life of appellate and civil cases: filing and termination. The termination data (archived as separate data collections each year) contain information on both filing and terminations, while the pending data (archived as this data collection and updated annually) contain only filing information on the most recent pending cases. The unit of analysis for the appellate and civil pending data is the case.

Subject Terms:

administration, appellate courts, case dismissal, case processing, civil law, court cases, criminal law, defendants, disposition (legal), federal courts, judicial decisions, legal systems, pretrial procedures, records, trial courts, trial procedures

Smallest Geographic Unit:

county

Geographic Coverage:

United States

Time Period:
  • 2011

Date of Collection:
  • 2011

Unit of Observation:

Appellate pending data -- case., Civil pending data without PLT and DEF -- case., Civil pending data with PLT and DEF -- case.

Universe:

All federal pending court cases in the United States in 2011.

Data Types:

administrative records data, event/transaction data

Data Collection Notes:

Starting with the year 2001, each year of data for Federal Court Cases Integrated Data Base is released by ICPSR as a separate study number. Data for the years 1970-2000 can be found in FEDERAL COURT CASES: INTEGRATED DATA BASE, 1970-2000 (ICPSR 8429).

Starting with year 2008, the appellate pending and civil pending data are archived as a separate data collection.

Methodology

Mode of Data Collection:

record abstracts

Data Source:

computerized court records, administrative records

Extent of Processing:

All archived data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. The archive also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, the archive performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Created variable labels and/or value labels.
  • Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.
  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

Access and Availability

Note:

Detailed file-level information (such as record length, case count, and variable count) is listed in the file manifest.

Original ICPSR Release:

2010-12-13

Restrictions:

The data are restricted from general dissemination. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement form and specify the reasons for the request. A copy of the Restricted Data Use Agreement form can be requested by calling 800-999-0960. Researchers can also download this form as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file from the download page associated with this dataset. Completed forms should be returned to: Director, National Archive of Criminal Justice Data, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, Institute for Social Research, P.O. Box 1248, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1248, or by fax: 734-647-8200.

Version History:

  • 2013-02-12 The collection was updated to reflect 2011 pending data.

  • 2012-01-12 2012-01-11 The data collection was revised to include appellate and civil cases pending as of the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010. Previous data was replaced with these data.

Dataset(s):
  • DS1: Appellate Pending Data, 2011
  • DS2: Civil Pending Data, 2011 -- With PLT and DEF Blanked
  • DS3: Civil Pending Data, 2011 -- With PLT and DEF Containing Original Values