Federal district courts are changing their operating procedures such as using remote communication and moving to essential personnel only, but are not closing completely. There is still daily court activity. In order to gain a better understanding, we compared court activity for four full weeks during March 2018, 2019, and 2020. In order to include 20 business days each year, the specific dates are March 4 to March 31, 2018; March 3 to March 30, 2019; and March 1 to March 28, 2020.

Here is a brief summary of our findings so far:

1. Case filings have not yet been significantly impacted year-over-year. This suggests that litigants are moving forward with planned litigation.
2. Case activity is down. Terminations and findings are lower year-over-year. In particular, findings at trial are down 41% from 2019. This suggests that, while litigants are moving forward with filing, courtrooms have been impacted in their ability to handle normal litigation loads.
3. COVID-19 is showing up in court records mainly due to general orders regarding procedural changes. The social changes due to the virus have also affected individual cases as courts changed their operating procedures.

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