Biennially, the Judicial Conference, the federal judiciary’s principal policymaking body, assesses the judiciary’s needs for additional judgeships. If the Conference determines that additional judgeships are needed, it transmits a request to Congress identifying the number, type (courts of appeals, district, or bankruptcy), and location of the judgeships it is requesting. The demands upon judges’ time are largely a function of both the number and complexity of the cases on their dockets. Some types of cases may demand relatively little time, and others may require many hours of work. The federal judiciary has developed workload measures for bankruptcy judges to estimate the national average amount of a judge’s time that different types of cases may require. Individual judges may actually spend more or less time than this average on specific cases within each type— such as personal chapter 7 bankruptcy cases with assets of less than $50,000 or chapter 13 cases with liabilities of $50,000 or more (see app. II). In assessing the need for additional bankruptcy judgeships in a bankruptcy court, the Judicial Conference first considers the court’s weighted case filings. The Judicial Conference has established 1,500 annual weighted case filings per authorized judgeship as an indicator of a bankruptcy court’s potential need for additional judgeships. This represents about 1,500 annual hours of case-related judge time. The Conference’s policy for assessing bankruptcy judgeship needs recognizes that judges’ workloads may be affected by factors not captured in the bankruptcy-weighted case filings. Examples of such factors include historical caseload data and filing trends; geographic, economic, and demographic factors in the bankruptcy district; and the availability of alternative solutions and resources for handling a court’s workload, such as assistance from judges outside the district. However, our analysis focused solely on the weighted case filings workload measure. Each case filed in a bankruptcy court is assigned a case weight. The case weight statistically represents the national average amount of judicial time, in hours, each type of bankruptcy case would be expected to require. The case weights are based on a 1988-1989 study in which bankruptcy judges completed diaries on how many hours they spent on specific types of cases and noncase-related work. Total annual weighted case filings for any specific bankruptcy court is the sum of the weights associated with each of the cases filed in the court in a year. Total annual weighted case filings per judgeship represent the estimated average amount of judge time that would be required to complete the cases filed in a specific bankruptcy court in a year. Weighted case filings per judgeship is the total weighted filings divided by the number of authorized judgeships. For example, if a bankruptcy court had 5,100 weighted case filings and three authorized judgeships, the weighted case filings per judgeship would be 1,700. Because this exceeds the 1,500 threshold, the Judicial Conference would consider this court for an additional judgeship. However, it should be noted that the Judicial Conference’s policy is to consider additional judgeships only for those courts that request them. Thus, if a court would otherwise be eligible for an additional judgeship, but did not request one, the Judicial Conference would not request a judgeship for that court. The Federal Judicial Center (FJC) developed the weights, adopted by the Judicial Conference in 1991, based on a 1988-1989 time study in which 272 bankruptcy judges (97 percent of all bankruptcy judges in those years) recorded the time they spent on specific cases for a 10-week period. Unlike the District Court time study, whose goal was to follow each sample case from filing to disposition—a “case tracking” study—this study was a “diary study” in which judges recorded in a time diary the hours spent on each case in the study and for other judicial work for the 10-week period. This period of time may or may not have covered the entire life of the case from filing through disposition. Appendix III includes a more detailed comparison of case-tracking and diary time studies as methods of capturing judge time spent on specific cases. The case weights were developed using a two-step process. First, time data were collected from 272 judges (97 percent of the total of 280 bankruptcy judges at the time of the study). The judges recorded the time they spent on a sample of cases and other judgeship work over a 10-week period. The judges were subdivided into five groups and the recording time period for each group was staggered over a 1-year period. Second, the researchers assessed the relative impact on judicial workload of different types of cases—that is, which types of cases seemed to take more or less time—and developed individual case weights for specific case categories. The basic case weight computations involved calculating the average amount of time spent on cases of each type during each month of their life. These averages were then summed to determine the total amount of time for each case type. Once the case weights had been created, total weighted case filings were calculated for each bankruptcy court. Then, weighted caseloads were transformed into initial estimates of required judgeships. These initial estimates were adjusted to account for factors other than those covered by the case weight calculation, such as the court’s case management practices and the time required to travel to divisional offices. After all adjustments, the study concluded that bankruptcy judges spent about 1,280 hours annually on direct case-related work and an average of 660 hours on matters not directly related to specific cases (e.g., on court and chambers administration, work-related travel, and other matters related to the judicial role). When it approved the case weights in 1991, the Judicial Conference stated that it expected that in addition to other judicial duties, a bankruptcy court should have at least 1,500 annual case-related hours per judgeship to justify additional judgeships. The federal work year is 2,080 hours per year, based on a 40-hour work week. Assuming that judges spent 1,500 hours annually on cases, there would remain 580 hours for federal holidays, annual leave, training, and noncase-related administrative tasks. Of course, the actual time that individual judges spend on case-related and non case-related work will vary. Overall, the methodology used to develop the bankruptcy case weights appears to be reasonable. The methodology included a valid sampling strategy, a very high participation rate among bankruptcy judges, and a reasonable means of adjusting for such factors as missing data. A notable strength of the methodology was the high participation rate by judges—97 percent of the bankruptcy judges at the time of the study. Thus, participating judges represented almost the entire universe of bankruptcy judges that could be included. The sampling period was not limited to a single time of year, thus minimizing potential bias due to variations in case filings by time of year. FJC researchers systematically used the reported time data to develop the case weights and made an effort to address all known limitations in the data. In computing the case weights, assumptions, and adjustments needed to be made to account for time data that were not linked to specific cases, missing data, and other factors. Both the assumptions and the methods used to make these adjustments appeared to be reasonable. It is important to note that the case weights were designed to estimate the impact of case filings on the workload of bankruptcy judges. Noncase-related time demands, such as time spent on court administration tasks, are not included in the case weights. The Judicial Conference focuses its analysis of the need for additional judges primarily on the demands that result from caseload, not noncase-related tasks and responsibilities. Potential limitations of the methodology included the possibility of judges using different standards and definitions to record their time. Although the judges had written instructions on how to record their time, judges may have varied in how they interpreted case-related and noncase-related hours. To the extent this occurred, it may have resulted in the recording of noncomparable time data among judges. Because some cases require longer calendar time to complete than others, not all cases in the sample were completed at the end of the 10 weeks in which judges recorded their time. In particular, the study captured only a small portion of the total time required for very large business bankruptcies. Where the cases were not completed, it was necessary to estimate the judge time that would have been required to complete the case. However, the method used to make these estimates was also reasonable. The size and time demands of chapter 11 business bankruptcies vary considerably. The bankruptcy case weights, which the Judicial Conference approved for use in 1991, included a weight of 11.234 hours for chapter 11 business filings involving $1 million or more and a weight of 4.021 hours for chapter 11 business filings with assets between $50,000 and $99,999. In 1996, a new method was used for measuring the workload required for very large (“mega”) chapter 11 business cases. This measure was also developed by the FJC and approved by the Judicial Conference’s Bankruptcy Committee. The mega cases were defined as “those involving extremely large assets, unusual public interest, a high level of creditor involvement, complex debt, a significant amount of related litigation, or a combination of such factors.” The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts defines mega chapter 11 cases as a single case or set of jointly administered or consolidated cases that involve $100 million or more in assets and 1,000 or more creditors. Mega chapter 11 cases are distinct from other large chapter 11 cases in that they generally involve a larger number of associated filings and extend over a longer period of time. The 1991 case weights did not fully reflect the judge time required for these very large, complex bankruptcy filings. The weighting scheme was a particular problem for the Southern District of New York and the District of Delaware, both of which have a high number of mega cases. At the time of the 1988-1989 bankruptcy time study, the highest value for chapter 11 cases in the bankruptcy administrative database was $1 million or more.