A report on the results of research undertaken in response to section 401 of the Federal Courts Improvement Act of 1982, which directs the Judicial Conference of the United States to "experiment with the different methods of recording court proceedings." The study evaluated the performance of audio recording systems placed in twelve courtrooms in ten circuits.

At the request of the Judicial Conference Committee on the Administration of the Bankruptcy System, during fiscal year 1989, the Center surveyed the caseloads of 272 bankruptcy judges (97% of those sitting at the time). The data collected in the survey formed the basis of seventeen case weights, which are the average amounts of time bankruptcy judges spent on the matters that came before them. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts uses the case weights to calculate weighted caseloads for each bankruptcy court, and the Judicial Conference uses this information as a major factor in assessing the need for bankruptcy judgeships.

Reprinted from 65 American Bankruptcy Law Journal 491 (1991).

The preliminary report of the Center's multiphase effort to document the effects of the Probation Division's aftercare program for drug-dependent federal offenders. The author reviews the operation of the program in a sample of ten probation districts. He describes the program's general approach; various characteristics of offenders in the program; services planned for and received by offenders; and adjustment experiences of offenders in aftercare, including resumed or continued drug use, new arrests and convictions, and technical violations.

Report of a Federal Judicial Center study of summary judgment practice in six federal district courts during six time periods over twenty-five years (1975-2000), to determine whether summary judgment activity has increased over time and to what extent changes in summary judgment practice are due to the 1986 Supreme Court trilogy of summary judgment cases. From 4 Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 861-907 (2007).