First Things First

Statistics

Supreme Court Statistics

With regard to the Supreme Court’s October 2024 Term, the First Circuit had one merits case reviewed (Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos), which was unanimously reversed by the Supreme Court.

First Circuit Appellate Statistics1

General Description

For the twelve months preceding March 31, 2025, the First Circuit had a total of 1,116 appeals filed. In light of the over 40,000 appeals filed across the country, the First Circuit received less than 3% of the total national appeals, the fewest of the circuits. In that same time period, 1,043 cases were terminated, with 706 cases decided “on the merits.”

Among filed appeals, approximately 35% were private civil appeals, 30% were criminal appeals, 10% were prisoner petitions, 10% were administrative agency appeals, 7% were “other civil” appeals, and 3% were bankruptcy appeals.2 For private civil appeals (excluding prisoner petitions), 69% involved a federal question, with the most common issue on appeal being civil rights. Among those civil rights appeals, 19% had the United States as the defendant. Of the criminal appeals, 36% involved controlled substances and 18% involved firearms.

Oral Argument Versus Decided on the Briefs

Excluding cases terminated by consolidation, approximately 34% of appeals resolved on the merits were decided after oral argument, with the remainder being decided solely on the briefs.

Private civil appeals and administrative appeals had the highest percentage of argued cases (44% each) and prisoner appeals had the lowest (12%). The First Circuit was more likely than the national average to hear argument on criminal cases (35% versus 21%).

Length of Appeal

The median time it took a case from notice of appeal to its resolution was just under 14 months, about 40% longer than the national median of 9.7 months and dead last among the circuits.3

Visiting Judges

The First Circuit had the highest percentage of cases decided with a visiting judge, with approximately 17.5% of all judges deciding cases in the First Circuit being visitors to the circuit.

First Circuit District Statistics

For the twelve months preceding March 31, 2025, the vast majority of civil cases commenced in the district courts within the First Circuit were filed in the District of Massachusetts, which received 63% of all cases filed.4 There were a total of 5,611 civil cases filed in those district courts.5 Of the private civil actions, personal injury suits represented 27% of cases, civil rights cases represented 22% of cases, and contract disputes represented 12% of cases.

  1. The statistics provided by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts report on the courts of appeals for the eleven numbered circuits and the District of Columbia, but exclude the Federal Circuit. These statistics are based on those twelve courts. ↩︎
  2. The remaining 5% of matters before the court are original proceedings or miscellaneous applications. ↩︎
  3. For those curious, the fastest circuit is the Eighth Circuit at 4.7 months. ↩︎
  4. Puerto Rico had the next most cases (11%), followed by Rhode Island (10%), Maine (8%), and finally New Hampshire (8%). ↩︎
  5. For a sense of scale, there were a total of 271,802 civil cases filed nationally. Thus, the district courts in the First Circuit received about 2% of the total civil cases in the country. By was of comparison, with a total of 16,625 civil cases filed, the Central District of California had nearly three times as many cases as the First Circuit district courts combined. ↩︎

Keep an eye out for more detailed statistics on the First Circuit coming soon.

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