Fiscal Year 2014 Caseload and Financial Highlights
 
Statewide
  • The Arizona Judicial Branch comprised 1.25% of the overall state budget.
  •  Arizona’s courts handled an average of 8,477 new cases each business day.
  • Arizona’s courts handled an average of 45 Jury Trials and an average of 254 Non-Jury Trials each week.
  • Arizona’s courts reduced their pending caseload - cases awaiting a final disposition - by 129,915 cases compared to the 2013 fiscal year.
  • Over 79,000 defendants report to Arizona’s Adult Probation Departments.
  • Statewide, there were 2,127,823 case filings in FY 2014 in the Arizona Courts (Appellate, Superior, Tax, Justice and Municipal Courts) resulting in 9,742 more filings compared to FY 2013, an increase of 0.5%. That equates to an average of 8,477 cases filed among the Arizona courts every working day.
  • Statewide, case filings increased by 0.5%, while revenue decreased by 1.7%. The trend in decreasing revenue continues to be driven by the overall decline in both criminal and civil traffic in the limited jurisdiction courts.
General Jurisdiction
  • Superior Court case filings increased by 0.6% statewide. In Maricopa county, filings increased by 1.8%, while Pima county and the rural counties reported a decreases of 3.2% and 0.7%, respectively. The statewide increase was driven by increased filings in the Criminal and Domestic Relations case type categories, while the remaining categories experienced a decreased filings.
  • Superior Court mental health filings decreased by 2.8% from FY 2013 to FY 2014. During the same period, terminations of mental health cases increased by 29.3%.
  • Within Superior Court, the case type categories with the most significant case filing increase include; Felony (8.8%), other domestic relations (7.7%), Tort-Motor Vehicle (9.6%), adoption (9.1%) and juvenile dependency (8.0%).
  • Superior Court criminal jury trials increased by 14.2% in FY 2014 when compared with FY 2013
  • In FY 2014, juvenile dependency filings increased by 8.0% compared to FY 2013 and 82.7% when compared to FY 2011. During the same period, juvenile delinquency filings decreased by 10.1% and 32.5%, respectively.
Limited Jurisdiction
  • Statewide, civil traffic case filings account for 56.5% of all case filings in Justice and Municipal Courts. Civil traffic filings decreased by 3,990, or 0.4% from FY 2013 to FY 2014.
  • There were 66,831 DUI charges filed in Justice and Municipal Courts. This represents a decrease of 4,507 case filings from FY 2013, or a 6.3% decrease. (Case filings in Justice and Municipal Courts are primarily counted by charge, not by defendant).
  • Justice Courts reduced the pending caseload by 5.4%.
  • Over 859,000 criminal and civil traffic filings were filed into municipal courts across the state during the 2014 fiscal year. These filing types make up about three quarters of the municipal court cases.