Maryland Court Statistics

While doing some other research, I happened upon the Maryland Judiciary’s Fiscal Year 2010 Annual Statistical Abstract (it covers July 2009 to June 2010). Whenever I see something law-related with statistics, I stop to take notice. I just have to look. There’s a lot of great data here. For example in the Circuit Courts:

• 107,814 new civil cases filed (5,698 of these (5.3%) were automobile accidents
• 2010 featured 16,768 more cases than 2009, which was itself 6,129 higher than 2008
• The number of automobile accident cases filed in 2010 was down 50 cases from 2009 filings
• The report divides automobile accident cases filed by jurisdiction: 174 (Howard); 91 (Anne Arundel); 966 (Baltimore County); 1,463 (Baltimore City); 531 (Montgomery County); and 1,096 (Prince George’s County)
• We don’t know the number of automobile trials, but we do know the number of civil jury trials for each county: 43 (Howard); 420 (Anne Arundel); No data (Baltimore County); 148 (Baltimore City); 172 (Montgomery County); and 295 (Prince George’s County)

Compare that to the District Courts (civil cases up to $30,000):

• Auto accident cases filed: 71,704 (Baltimore City); 133,240 (Prince George’s); 87,135 (Montgomery); 47,338 (Anne Arundel); 79,824 (Baltimore County)
• Sadly, there is no data on auto case judge trials