As trial courts, federal district courts are the first, and in many cases the only, face of justice for litigants in the federal judicial system. And yet, our knowledge of the business of these important courts is quite limited.
Viewed as the sum of its three essays, this dissertation project seeks to remedy this deficit and unearth an unprecedented degree of evidence on the role and place of federal district courts in the judicial hierarchy. In particular, this research statistically models (1) the direct impact that courts of appeals have on district court outcomes; (2) the losing litigant?s decision to appeal from district courts to courts of appeals and the resulting appellate outcome based on that appeal; and (3) the initial disposition of cases in federal district courts, with a specific focus on the sex of the judge presiding over the case and the likelihood of case settlement.
The data collected for this project promise to be some of the most comprehensive ever amassed on the subject. By collecting and coding thousands of case dockets, opinions, and other court documents across multiple years, thirty district courts, and numerous issues areas that together account for about forty percent of federal district court civil dockets, this research improves on previous studies that generally rely on only published or reported opinions, a small number of district courts, and a limited set of issue areas. These data are combined with judge and litigant specific information, providing unprecedented insights into the development of law, the strategies of parties, the managerial role of judges, and the influence of intermediate appellate courts.
