Civil Justice Survey of State Courts: [United States] Series

Investigator(s): Bureau of Justice Statistics These surveys provide a broad-based, systematic examination of the nature of general civil litigation (e.g., tort, contract, and real property cases) disposed in a sample of the nation's 75 most populous counties. Data collection was carried out by the National Center for State Courts with the assistance of WESTAT. Data collected includes information about the types of civil cases litigated at trial, types of plaintiffs and defendants, trial winners, amount of total damages awarded, amount of punitive damages awarded, and case processing time. In addition, information was collected on general civil cases concluded by bench or jury trial that were subsequently appealed to a state's intermediate appellate court or court of last resort. The appellate datasets examine information on the types of civil bench and jury trials appealed, the characteristics of litigants filing an appeal, the frequency in which appellate courts affirm, reverse, or modify trial court outcomes and cases further appealed from an intermediate appellate court to a state court of last resort.