Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[jennyshi]

Automobile accident cases , for example l, have come to dominate tort litigation and , indeed, account for perhaps three fourth of all American civil cases of this type. The social costs of automobile transportation are appallingly high , and the mass of automobile accident litigation [url]has put courts in United States years behind their dockets.[/url]
What does it mean "has put courts in United States years behind their dockets"?
Look forward to your help,friend .

[bud]

Hi Jenny,

A court's docket is the list of cases that have been assigned to that particular court.

"To be behind an amount of time in/on something" means that 'the something' is 'that amount of time' overdue, or that it will take that much time to get back on schedule. "The highway project is a year behind schedule" means that the projected completion date is now one year later than previously thought.

So, to be years behind on their dockets means that there are a lot of cases that are awaiting trial. It would take years to clear the backlog of cases, even if no new cases were added during that time.

I hope I said that clearly enough.