COURTS ARE FLOODED

The flood of bankruptcy caseshas swamped America's court system,according to US SupremeCourt Chief Justice William Rehnquist.In his year-end report toCongress, Rehnquist notes that nonew bankruptcy judgeships havebeen created in a decade, eventhough bankruptcy cases havejumped more than 70% since1993. In 2001, the last year for whichtotals are available, 1.5 million bankruptcycases were filed, the highestnumber ever, and each bankruptcyjudge handled 4777 cases, comparedwith a caseload of fewer than 3000 in1992. Rehnquist is asking Congressto approve 24 new bankruptcy judgeships,along with higher pay for alljudges to encourage them to continueworking in the public sector.