Database
The Civil Justice Survey of State Courts, 1992 is the first broadly based, systematic examination of the nature of civil litigation in State general jurisdiction trial courts. In 1992, the Bureau of Justice Statistics awarded a grant to the National Center for State Courts to gather detailed information on tort, contract and real property rights cases in 45 jurisdictions chosen to represent the 75 most populous counties in the Nation. The universe of the 75 largest counties was chosen based on cost and practicality. The top 75 counties account for about 37 percent of the U.S. population and about half of all civil filings.Important Note
This database is only a sampling, not a complete set of all cases. It is a sampling of certain kinds of cases in certain courts in certain counties. Even within those limits, it is not a wholly random sampling. As the description below makes clear, the two-stage sampling technique causes tort cases to be over-represented by about 50 per cent.Counties
Information about tort, contract and real property rights disposed and civil jury trial cases were collected from the following jurisdictions:
Maricopa County, AZ Pima County, AZ Alameda County, CA Contra Costa County, CA Fresno County, CA Los Angeles County, CA (includes only the central district of the Los Angeles County Superior Court) Orange County, CA San Bernadino County, CA San Francisco County, CA Santa Clara County, CA Ventura County, CA Fairfield Judicial District, CT Hartford/New Britain Judicial District, CT Dade County, FL Orange County, FL Palm Beach County, FL Fulton County, GA Honolulu County, HI Cook County, IL DuPage County, IL Marion County, IN Jefferson County, KY Essex County, MA Middlesex County, MA Norfolk County, MA Suffolk County, MA Worcester County, MA Oakland County, MI Wayne County, MI Hennepin County, MN St. Louis County, MO Bergen County, NJ Essex County, NJ Middlesex County, NJ New York County, NY Cuyahoga County, OH Franklin County, OH Allegheny County, PA Philadelphia County, PA Bexar County, TX Dallas County, TX Harris County, TX Fairfax County, VA King County, WA Milwaukee County, WI
Note on jurisdiction selection: Originally, 46 counties were chosen for the project. However, two counties (Montgomery and Prince Georges) in Maryland that were selected chose not to participate in the project. Fairfax County, Virginia was chosen as a replacement.STATE---COUNTY---COURT---(CITY)---SITE ABBREV
AZ Maricopa Co., Superior Ct. (Phoenix) PHO
AZ Pima Co., Superior Court (Tucson) TUC
CA Alameda Co., Superior Ct. (Oakland) OAK
CA Contra Costa Co., Superior Court (Martinez) CCO *
CA Fresno Co., Superior Court (Fresno) FRE
CA Los Angeles Co., Superior Court (Los Angeles) LAN
CA Orange Co., Superior Court (Santa Ana) SAN
CA San Bernardino Co., Superior Court (San Bernardino) SBE
CA San Francisco Co., Superior Court (San Francisco) SFR
CA Santa Clara Co., Superior Court (San Jose) SJO
CA Ventura Co., Superior Court (Ventura) VEN
CT Fairfield Co., Superior Ct. (Bridgeport) BRI
CT Hartford Co. Superior Court (Hartford) HAR
FL Dade Co., Circuit Ct. (Miami) MIA
FL Orange Co., Circuit Court (Orlando) ORL
FL Palm Beach Co., Circuit Court (West Palm) WPA
GA Fulton Co., Superior Ct. (Atlanta) ATL
HA Honolulu, Circuit Ct. (Honolulu) HON
IL Cook Co., Circuit Ct. (Chicago) CHI
IL DuPage Co., Circuit Court (Wheaton) WHE
IN Marion Co., Superior Ct. (Indianapolis) IND
KY Jefferson Co., Circuit Ct. (Louisville) LOU
MA Essex Co., Superior Ct. ESS *
MA Middlesex Co., Superior Court MID *
MA Norfolk Co., Superior Court NOR *
MA Suffolk Co., Superior Court SUF *
MA Worcester Co., Superior Court WOR *
MI Oakland Co., Circuit Ct. (Pontiac) PON
MI Wayne Co., Circuit Court (Detroit) DET
MN Hennepin Co., District Ct. (Minneapolis) MIN
MO St. Louis Co., Circuit Ct. (St. Louis) SLO
NJ Bergen Co., Superior Ct. (Hackensack) HAC
NJ Essex Co., Superior Court (Newark) NWK
NJ Middlesex Co., Superior Court (New Brunswick) NBR
NY New York Co., Supreme Ct. (New York) NYO
OH Cuyahoga Co., Ct. of Common Pleas (Cleveland) CLE
OH Franklin Co., Ct. of Common Pleas (Columbus) COL
PA Allegheny Co., Ct. of Common Pleas (Pittsburgh) PIT
PA Philadelphia Co., Ct. of Common Pleas (Philadelphia PHI
TX Bexar Co., District Ct. BEX *
TX Dallas Co., District Court (Dallas) DAL
TX Harris Co., District Court (Houston) HOU
VA Fairfax Co., Circuit Ct. (Fairfax) FAI
WA King Co., Superior Ct. (Seattle) SEA
WI Milwaukee Co., Circuit Ct. (Milwaukee) MIL
* Abbreviation based on name of COUNTY. All others based on name of City.
Data Collection Procedures
The data collection for the tort, contract and real property rights dataset was primarily carried out by the National Center for State Courts with assistance from the National Association of Criminal Justice Planners and the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The sample consisted of tort, contract and real property rights cases disposed between July 1, 1991 and June 30, 1992. For each sampled case, a standard coding form was manually completed by court staff on-site to record information about litigants, case type, disposition type, and processing time and case outcome.
Sampling Information
The sample for this dataset was designed and selected by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. It is a two-stage stratified sample with 45 of the 75 most populous counties selected at the first stage. The 75 counties were divided into four strata based on aggregate civil disposition data for 1990 obtained through telephone interviews with court staffs in the general jurisdiction trial courts. (See Attachment B for list of top 75 counties and 1990 civil dispositions). The stratum boundaries were:
Stratum Number of civil dispositions
1 55,000 or more
2 28,000 to 55,000
3 15,000 to 28,000
4 less than 15,000
In stratum 1 (14 counties with the largest number of civil case dispositions), each county was selected. Stratum 2 consisted of 15 counties, with 12 chosen. From Stratum 3, 10 of the 20 counties were selected. From Stratum 4, 9 of the 26 counties were included.
At the second stage, either a systematic or random sample of 400-450 tort, contract and real property cases disposed between July 1, 1991 and June 30, 1992, was selected within the State general jurisdiction trial court of each county. (See Attachment A for list of counties and selection method).
An original take rate was established by the U.S. Bureau of the Census to achieve a coefficient of variation (CV) of three percent for the total number of tort dispositions for the top 75 counties. However, in most counties, a larger take rate was used.
After the first sample of cases was drawn, another interval or random sample of 400-450 tort cases disposed in each trial court was selected. Tort cases that were selected in the first sample were included in the universe of tort cases for selecting the tort case sample. In some sites where the first sample of cases produced a sufficiently large number of tort cases (about 400), the tort case sample was derived from all tort cases that appeared in this first sample. Data were collected on approximately 18,000 tort cases in this sample.
To increase the precision of the estimates generated by the data on tort cases, the 12,000 tort cases collected in the first sample were replaced by the 18,000 tort cases collected in the second sample. The final merged dataset contained data on 29,880 tort, contract and real property rights cases. This merged dataset was used to produce the Bureau of Justice Statistics reports on Tort and Contract cases.