Cases down in Baton Rouge federal court

Baton Rouge federal court isn’t nearly as busy a place these days as it once was. Federal judicial caseload statistics released last week for the year ending March 31 show just 2,310 civil cases were pending, down a whopping 73% from the previous year. That’s because the court terminated 7,355 cases in that reporting period—the bulk of which involved class-action lawsuits against Exxon dating back to incidents in 1993 and 1994. Federal Clerk of Court Nick Lorio tells Daily Report that brought the Baton Rouge caseload back to more typical levels. However, new civil cases also dropped 2%, to 981. Likewise, new criminal cases were down nearly 10% to 217; the number of people charged with a crime was down nearly 6% to 266. Overall, 233 criminal cases were pending against 400 people. Most of the remaining civil matters involve contract disputes and prisoner complaints; the bulk of the crimes, firearms, explosives or fraud. The court was the slowest in the nation in resolving cases. Its median time for taking one from start to finish was 128.8 months, compared to 9.7 months nationwide and 12.5 months for the 5th Circuit region. The class-action cases were to blame for that as well. —Penny Brown Font