No Relief Seen for Overloaded S.D. Courts : Judicial: The crime caseload of federal judges is among the country’s heaviest, but it may be years before any new judgeships are considered by Congress.

Despite a criminal caseload that has ranked as the nation’s heaviest for two years running, there is no relief in sight for busy San Diego federal judges.

Although its docket is overloaded, the burden on San Diego is not considered as onerous as some other district courts around the country, according to federal court administrators. And because Congress only gets around to approving new judgeships every six years or so, fresh judicial troops won’t be arriving in the San Diego region anytime soon.

The system is not designed as a quick fix for overbooked jurisdictions, court officials say, and changes in the distribution of judges can take years to execute--even when new judgeships are approved.

That is not necessarily a bad thing, according to court officials in Washington.

“There is certainly strong thought within the judicial system that the answer is not adding more judgeships,” said David Sellers, a spokesman for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. “More judges produce more divergent opinions which produce more appeals. The prevailing view is to have Congress reduce the courts’ jurisdiction.”

But the trend is clearly moving in the opposite direction.

Reacting to rising crime rates, Congress has in recent years enacted new sections of the federal criminal code that copy existing state drug laws. Most states, reeling from severe budget restraints, have gone along with the broadened federal role.

In San Diego, the additional criminal cases have added to an already hectic court docket, bulging with drug and border-related indictments. New statistics show that San Diego federal judges spent 86% of their trial time on criminal cases--more than double the national average of 40%, said Sellers.

The filing rate at the San Diego court in fiscal 1992 was 153 cases per judge, three times the national average.

It is “a record we wish we didn’t have,” said Judith N. Keep, San Diego’s chief federal judge.

But court administrators in California and Washington have a different view of the workload.

Under a weighted system to measure court filings, the San Diego federal court, which serves San Diego and Imperial counties, doesn’t appear as overloaded as some other jurisdictions in the country. The system gives more weight to complex, time-consuming cases--like an antitrust matter--than to simpler cases--like a student loan default--that can be dealt with more quickly.

It is difficult to generalize about the relative complexity of criminal cases, Sellers said. Some can be disposed of quickly, but court officials have noted a trend toward multi-defendant cases that can lead to lengthy trials.

Using the “weighted filing” method, the San Diego court is indeed busy--but not quite busy enough. Court officials generally require a jurisdiction to have a “weighted-filings” factor of 400 to be considered for more judges. The San Diego court’s weighted filings were computed at 393.

Among the jurisdictions busier than San Diego were some in New York, Connecticut, Louisiana and Arizona.

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, which makes recommendations for new judgeships every other year, released its latest report last week, calling for 17 new judgeships for the nation’s 11 judicial circuits. None of California’s four judicial districts was among them.

The chances for congressional action on the report are virtually zero, officials say. The last legislation to add judgeships passed in 1990 and created 11 new appellate judges and 74 district judges.

If Congress behaves true to form, it will be several more years before legislation adding more judges makes it out of committee.

“In reality, Congress waits for a pile of recommendations to accumulate,” Sellers said.

“After such a big batch in 1990, the courts realize they’re not going to get any this year.”

In the 1990 law, the San Diego court was awarded one new judge, bringing its total to eight.

But political bickering between Congress and the White House has kept President Bush’s nomination of San Diego lawyer Jim McIntyre in limbo. According to judicial etiquette, asking for additional judgeships when vacancies exist would be out of place--and politically unrealistic.

Recognizing the futility of seeking congressional action in an election year, none of California’s federal court districts requested any new judgeships.