A United States Magistrate Judge is a federal trial judge appointed to serve in a United States district court for a term of eight years. He or she is appointed by the life-tenured federal judges of a district court, District Judges, who supervise the activities of the Magistrate Judges by assigning civil cases for jury or non-jury trial upon consent of the parties and for pre-trial matters. Similarly criminal cases are assigned to Magistrate Judges on the consent of the parties, except for the trial of felony cases.
The current Magistrate Judge system was begun by Congress in 1968 expanding on the 175 year old United States commissioner system. The Magistrate Judges are appointed based upon the recommendations of a citizen's merit screening committee. In 2011, in addition to the 527 full-time Magistrate Judge positions authorized there were 41 part-time judges and 3 combination Clerk of Court/Magistrate Judges who serve four year terms.
It is the policy of the Judicial Conference of the United States to oppose restrictions on the utilization of Magistrate Judges by the district courts, Long Range Plan for the Federal Courts. This flexibility enables the courts to manage increasing caseloads with limited resources.
For the 12 month period ending September 30, 2010, Magistrate Judges performed 353,847 judicial duties in civil cases,. Among these were 241,971 civil pretrial duties, including 169,134 motions, 20,515 settlement conferences, and 52,322 other pretrial conferences..
They also performed 186,337 felony pretrial duties, including 98,115 motions, 38,921 pretrial conferences, and 2,222 evidentiary hearings.
Magistrate Judges terminated 12,470 civil cases with litigants' consent in the 12 month period ending September 30, 2010. During the same 12 month period Magistrate Judges conducted 333 civil jury trials and 171 civil trials without jury. This use of Magistrate Judges to resolve civil cases, facilitated by means such as including them in a court's civil case assignment system, has been a key component of many courts' efforts to make the best use of judicial resources.
In the 12 month period ending September 30, 2010. Magistrate Judges submitted 21,385 recommended dispositions in prisoner cases (habeas corpus and civil rights). They completed 4,225 reports and recommendations in social security appeals. They conducted 2,369 trials in misdemeanor and petty offense cases and disposed of 116,983 cases. Magistrate Judges conducted 368,157 felony preliminary proceedings. Magistrate Judges' volume of detention hearings (among the lengthiest of felony preliminary proceedings) reached 49,238 in the 12 month period ending September 30, 2010.
William J. Nealon United States Courthouse in Scranton, PA
Thurgood Marshall Administrative Office of United States Courts