U.S. Courts of Appeals — Judicial Business 2021

Appeals by pro se litigants, which constituted 48 percent of new filings, dropped 9 percent to 21,423 cases. Forty-two percent of all filings by pro se litigants were prisoner petitions. Eighty-five percent of the 10,494 prisoner petitions received were filed pro se, as were 84 percent of the 3,576 original proceedings and miscellaneous applications.

Seventy-six percent of filings arose from cases originating in the U.S. district courts. Civil appeals, which amounted to 52 percent of total appellate court filings, fell 9 percent to 23,256.

Criminal appeals, which accounted for 24 percent of total filings in the appeals courts, increased 10 percent to 10,625. Appeals in cases addressing drugs, firearms and explosives, sex offenses, violent offenses, immigration, general offenses, regulatory offenses, unclassified offenses, and traffic offenses increased. Reductions occurred in appeals in cases involving property offenses and justice system offenses.

Administrative agency appeals dropped 11 percent to 6,356 and represented 14 percent of total filings in the courts of appeals. Appeals of Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) decisions, which decreased 9 percent, constituted 87 percent of administrative agency appeals. Forty-eight percent of BIA appeals were filed in the Ninth Circuit and 13 percent were filed in the Second Circuit.

Original proceedings filed in the appellate courts fell 32 percent to 3,576. Bankruptcy appeals rose 18 percent and amounted to 2 percent of total appellate filings.

Case terminations decreased 1 percent to 47,748. As terminations exceeded filings, pending cases dropped 8 percent to 35,552.

Since 2017, filings in the courts of appeals have declined 12 percent. Original proceedings and miscellaneous applications have gone down 35 percent. Civil appeals (including prisoner petitions) have fallen 18 percent. Criminal appeals filings have gone up 7 percent. Administrative agency appeals have increased 3 percent. Bankruptcy appeals have remained stable, rising less than 1 percent.

For data on the activity of the U.S. courts of appeals, see Table 1 and Table 2 and the B series of tables .

Bankruptcy Appellate Panels

The Bankruptcy Appellate Panels (BAPs) are three-judge panels authorized to hear appeals of bankruptcy court decisions. BAPs are units of the federal courts of appeals, and each BAP must be established by a circuit judicial council. Five federal judicial circuits — the First, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth circuits — have BAPs.

Total filings in the BAPs declined 22 percent (down 117 appeals) to 408 in 2021, the lowest level in the last 20 years, with reductions occurring in all five circuits with BAPs. BAP case filings tend to lag bankruptcy case filings by about two years.

The largest percentage reductions were drops of 45 percent in the First Circuit (down 27 appeals) and 43 percent in the Eighth Circuit (down 13 appeals). Filings decreased by 69 appeals in the Ninth Circuit, by 7 appeals in the Tenth Circuit, and by 1 appeal in the Sixth Circuit.

Since 2017, BAP filings have fallen 34 percent (down 209 appeals). All five BAP circuits reported reductions in filings over this period. The Ninth Circuit had the greatest numeric decline, a decrease of 155 appeals (down 36 percent). The First Circuit had 22 fewer appeals (down 40 percent), the Eighth Circuit had 17 fewer appeals (down 50 percent), the Sixth Circuit had 8 fewer appeals (down 19 percent), and the Tenth Circuit had 7 fewer appeals (down 11 percent).

For data on the activity of the BAPs, see Table BAP-1 and Table BAP-2 .

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

The jurisdiction of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is defined by subject matter rather than by geographic boundaries. This court is responsible for appeals involving customs and patents; rulings by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, U.S. Court of International Trade, and U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims; and decisions by several federal administrative bodies.

Filings in the Federal Circuit climbed 9 percent to 1,582 in 2021 (up by 126 cases). Total filings per panel rose from 364 to 396. Increases were spread across seven types of filings, with the largest numeric growth occurring in appeals of decisions by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, which rose by 178 to 330 (up 117 percent), and in petitions for writs of mandamus, other extraordinary writs, permission to appeal, and discretionary review, which climbed by 41 to 94 (up 77 percent).

The largest numeric decreases were in appeals of decisions by the U.S. district courts, which fell by 36 to 289 (down 11 percent), and in appeals of decisions by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which dropped by 25 to 516 (down 5 percent).

Terminations of cases declined 13 percent to 1,370. The number of pending cases rose 17 percent to 1,449.

Filings in the Federal Circuit were 9 percent lower in 2021 than in 2017 (down 149 cases). The largest numeric reduction occurred in appeals of decisions by the U.S. district courts, which fell by 217 to 289 (down 43 percent). Since 2017, case terminations have dropped 17 percent (down 275 appeals), and pending cases have decreased 6 percent (down 93 appeals).

For data on the activity of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, see Table B-8 .