Paid Docket

The Supreme Court receives well over four thousand petitions a year from litigants who want their cases reviewed by the nation's highest court. These petitions for review come from individuals who are unable to pay the court costs as well as from those who can afford to pay the filing fee and printing costs. The Court recognizes this distinction by classifying petitions filed as “in forma pauperis” and “paid cases.” Paid petitions are generally of higher quality than are unpaid ones because indigent defendants often draft their own petitions.

Nearly half of the increase in cases filed with the Court in the 1970s was because of a rise in petitions from indigent defendants, but the Court still accepts more paid petitions for review. In the 1988 term it accepted 10 percent of the paid cases for review, while it granted review to only 1 percent of the petitions from indigent defendants. However, the Court accepts few paid petitions when they are from criminal defendants. In cases involving criminal appeals, the Court tends to accept more paid petitions for review that come from state courts than paid petitions from federal criminal defendants. When the Court accepts a paid petition for review from a state criminal defendant, it usually does so in cases that involve the vindication of a federal right. However, the Court usually grants review to paid petitions from federal criminal defendants so that it can resolve an intercircuit conflict.

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See also Workload

— Karen Maschke