This report presents the results of a survey of federal district court judges regarding their use of patent litigation case management and claim construction procedures. When applicable, the report also compares these judges' reported practices with the recommendations contained in four recent sources. In general, surveyed judges' reported practices are consistent with the sources' recommendations, and judges who are relatively more experienced with patent litigation and claim construction tended to give similar answers to those given by judges less experienced in these areas.

A description of the procedures used in several district courts to adjust the filing fee to the amount of income available to a prisoner. The report details the operation of the program in the Northern District of Ohio, Western Division, and assesses the impact of the procedure on the court and litigants.

In late 2017, the Committee on Defender Services (Committee) asked the Federal Judicial Center to generate a white paper on the potential effects on the federal courts and the defender services program of a determination that states have “opted in” to special expedited procedures created by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA).

After a brief discussion of some of the changes under “opt-in,” as Chapter 154’s procedures are called, this white paper discusses the potential impact of opt-in for the federal district and appellate courts with jurisdiction in Arizona and Texas, the two states that have applied for opt-in status thus far.

An evaluation of study commitments under 18 U.S. C. Sections 4205(c) and 5010(e). The report concludes that the objective of observation and study--obtaining professional evaluations to support sentencing decisions--has not been met. The author proposes a new model for these studies.