This report, and the study on which it is based, were undertaken pursuant to a House Committee Recommendation to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023. The recommendation directed the Federal Judicial Center (FJC) to contract with the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA), entering into an independent partnership to assist the FJC in its efforts to conduct workplace surveys of the judiciary, collect and analyze organizational process and employment engagement data, and coordinate best workplace practices across the judiciary. The recommendation also directed that the study explore options to institutionalize such capacity within the judiciary to ensure continued and consistent attention to matters of workplace misconduct in the future.

This report, which was prepared for the standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure’s subcommittee on attorney admissions, summarizes when and where federal district courts require local counsel to participate in litigation and attorney admissions to the district courts’ bars.

This report evaluates the implementation of the interim recommendations made by the Ad Hoc Committee to Review the Criminal Justice Act, appointed by the Chief Justice, in its 2017 report. The 35 interim recommendations called for changes in the administration of the Criminal Justice Act to improve the independence of the defense function while the Ad Hoc Committee’s final recommendation—an independent Defender Commission within the judicial branch of government, but outside the oversight of the Judicial Conference—was considered. Drawing from defender program information as well as newly collected data, the evaluation considers the implementation of the recommendations and the extent to which implementation addresses the concerns with the administration of federal public defense identified by the Ad Hoc Committee.

This report fulfills the Center’s requirement under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 (Pub. L. No. 117-103), to submit a report to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations “identifying jurisdictions that have a high number of civil jury trials and analyze whether the litigation practices, local court rules, or other factors in those jurisdictions may contribute to a higher incidence of civil jury trials.”