This third annual report details the Court of Appeals of Virginia’s case filing and processing data for 2023, and the first nine months of data collected in 2024. Key points regarding the Court’s workload and processes include:

• The Court anticipates approximately 2,150 new case filings for 2024, which exceeds pre-pandemic levels, but it is lower than the case intake for 2023. The slight reduction in total appeals appears partly attributable to a 2023 amendment to Virginia Code § 17.1-406, which returned civil claims that collaterally attack criminal convictions to the Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction.

• The Court continues to receive more motions than it did before its jurisdiction expanded in 2022. In 2024, the Court will receive over 4,000 motions, much higher than the 1,300 motions it received annually before expanded jurisdiction. The Clerk’s Office, Chief Staff Attorney’s Office and Judicial Chambers undertake a significant amount of work to review, decide, and issue rulings on these motions.

• The Court has identified and continues to monitor three main factors that contribute to the increased case life of the Court’s cases: (1) increased pro se litigation; (2) increased motions practice; and (3) increased complexity of legal issues, particularly in civil litigation, which leads to more complex and sometimes fractured opinions.

• New positions that were funded for the Chief Staff Attorney’s Office and Clerk’s Office have been staffed to address the volume of civil cases, motions practice, and efficient release of opinions. By enhancing processes and adding personnel, the Court is able to better serve litigants and the Commonwealth as a whole. While the Court has not yet met all of its efficiency goals, it has made notable progress toward those goals, with a current case clearance rate of 92%. Further, cases that may be decided without oral argument pursuant to Code § 17.1-403 are being resolved more efficiently, thus freeing up space for other cases to reach oral argument in a shorter timeframe. The Court continues to asses the intake and processing of cases to identify further efficiencies and improvements.

• The legacy case management system hinders the Court’s ability to work efficiently and accurately track case information from an appeal’s beginning to end. In conjunction with the Supreme Court of Virginia, the Court has begun exploring technological improvements that will allow for integrated electronic filing, increased public access, and enhance the Court’s ability to better serve the litigants and provide the General Assembly with more accurate data.