A rocket docket is a court or other tribunal that is noted for its speedy disposition of cases and controversies that come before it, often by maintaining strict adherence to the law as pertains to filing deadlines, etc.
The term was originally applied to the
, after Judge
Albert V. Bryan Jr.
Albert Vickers Bryan Jr. (November 8, 1926 – August 27, 2019) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Education and career
Born in Alexandria, Virginia, Bryan's father Albe ...
, who ran the federal courthouse in Alexandria, decided that justice was being dispensed too slowly for his liking. The court earned the nickname among attorneys practicing there in the 1970s, who told stories of Bryan ruling on the spot when
motions
In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer and meas ...
were argued, and trying entire cases in one afternoon. As of September 2011, the Eastern District of Virginia had the shortest average time from filing to disposition for civil cases that went to trial (at 12.1 months) and was second (behind the
Eastern District of Pennsylvania
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (in case citations, E.D. Pa.) is one of the original 13 federal judiciary districts created by the Judiciary Act of 1789. It originally sat in Independence Hall in Phila ...
) in median time for resolution of all civil cases.
Later the term was applied to the
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (in case citations, E.D. Tex.) is a federal court in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Fifth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. ...
. Other jurisdictions that have been characterized as rocket dockets include the
; the
; the
; and the
.
The
U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has designated its expedited examination of
design patent
In the United States, a design patent is a form of legal protection granted to the ornamental design of an article of manufacture. Design patents are a type of industrial design right. Ornamental designs of jewelry, furniture, beverage containers ...
applications as a rocket docket.
In
Jefferson County (
Louisville
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border.
...
),
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
a team of prosecutors is assigned to the Progressive Criminal Justice Plan, referred to as the "rocket docket," for speedy resolution of certain criminal matters.
Another notable "rocket docket" court involved
Lee County, Florida
Lee County is located in Southwest Florida on the Gulf Coast. As of the 2020 census, the population was 760,822. The county seat is Fort Myers (with a population of 86,395 as of the 2020 census), and the largest city is Cape Coral with an esti ...
(
Fort Myers
Fort Myers (or Ft. Myers) is a city in southwestern Florida and the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 92,245 in 20 ...
), home of numerous
foreclosure
Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan.
Formally, a mortg ...
proceedings due to the collapse of the Florida housing market as a result of the
financial crisis of 2007–2008
Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...
, part of the
2010 United States foreclosure crisis
The 2010 United States foreclosure crisis, sometimes referred to as Foreclosure-gate or Foreclosuregate, refers to a widespread epidemic of improper foreclosures initiated by large banks and other lenders. The foreclosure crisis was extensivel ...
. On some days, the court heard up to 1,000 cases per day; assuming an 8-hour day, this equates to less than 30 seconds per case. The entire case frequently consists of two questions: whether the homeowner is behind on payments, and whether they are still in the house. If yes, the judge allows the homeowner 60 days to come to an agreement with the bank for payments or lose the house.
References
{{reflist
Legal procedure
Judiciaries