[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 157 (Tuesday, August 14, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42681-42682]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-20433]


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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Bureau of Justice Statistics

[OJP(BJS)-1325]


2001 Civil Justice Survey of State Courts

AGENCY: Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

ACTION: Notice of solicitation for award of cooperative agreement.

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SUMMARY: The purpose of this notice is to announce a public 
solicitation to obtain a data collection agent for the 2001 Civil 
Justice Survey of State Courts.

DATES: Proposals must arrive at the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) 
on or before 5 p.m. EST, Friday, September 14, 2001, or be postmarked 
on or before September 14, 2001.

ADDRESSES: Proposals should be mailed to: Application Coordinator, 
Bureau of Justice Statistics, 810 7th Street NW., Washington, DC 20531; 
(202) 616-3497.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Carol DeFrances, Ph.D., Statistician, 
Bureau of Justice Statistics, 810 7th Street NW, Washington, D.C. 
20531; Phone: (202) 307-0777 [This is not a toll free number]; Email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Statutory Authority

    The award(s) made pursuant to this solicitation will be funded by 
the Bureau of Justice Statistics consistent with the provisions of 42 
U.S.C. Sec. 3732.

Program Goals

    The purpose of this award is to provide funding to administer the 
2001 Civil Justice Survey of State Courts. The survey will collect 
information on tort, contract, and real property rights cases disposed 
of by jury or bench trial in State courts of general jurisdiction in 45 
counties chosen to represent the Nation's 75 most populous counties. 
The project will replicate the scope and content of the jury and bench 
trial data collected in the 1996 Civil Justice Survey of State Courts. 
The project also will extend the data collection to include information 
on the number of trial cases appealed, outcome of the appeal as well as 
collect available characteristics of plaintiffs and defendants.
    BJS anticipates making one award for a 24-month period under this 
solicitation. Up to $425,000 will be made available for this project 
under the FY2001 appropriation.

Background

    The Civil Justice Survey of State Courts statistical series is the 
only broad based, systematic examination of the nature of civil 
litigation in State courts of general jurisdiction. The 1992 Civil 
Justice Survey of State Courts, the first time the project was 
conducted, gathered detailed information on a sample of tort, contract 
and real property rights cases in 45 jurisdictions chosen to represent 
the 75 most populous counties in the Nation. The largest 75 counties 
account for about 37 percent of the U.S. population and about half of 
all civil filings. The 1992 data collection produced two data sets. The 
first data set was a sample of approximately 30,000 tort, contract, and 
real property rights cases disposed of by various methods such as 
agreed judgment, summary judgment, arbitration, and trial verdict 
during the twelve month period ending June 30, 1992. The second data 
set was a sample of about 6,500 cases disposed of only by jury trial 
over the same time period.
    The 1996 Civil Justice Survey of State Courts expanded the 1992 
civil jury study by specifically sampling bench and jury trial cases. 
For the 1996 project, information was collected on tort, contract and 
real property rights trial cases in 45 jurisdictions chosen to 
represent the 75 most populous counties in the Nation. The 1996 data 
collection produced one data set that contained a sample of 9,025 tort, 
contract, and real property rights cases disposed of by jury or bench 
verdict between January and December 1996.
    The data collected during the 1992 and 1996 Civil Justice Survey of 
State Courts has been used in many law journal articles, quoted in 
various newspaper articles, and cited in proposed federal legislation 
on asbestos.

Eligibility Requirements

    Both profit making and nonprofit organizations may apply for funds. 
Consistent with OJP fiscal year requirements, however, no fees may be 
charged against the project by profit-making organizations.

Scope of Work

    The objective of this project is to complete data collection for 
the 2001 Civil Justice Survey of State Courts. This includes selecting 
the 45 sites and obtaining the State court's cooperation, developing 
the data collection instrument, selecting the tort, contract and real 
property rights trial cases, data verification, data coding and entry, 
constructing replicate weights for standard error testing, and delivery 
of a final data set and documentation to BJS. Specifically, the 
recipient of funds will:
    1. Design a new sample of 45 counties chosen to represent the 
largest 75 counties based on the 2000 Bureau of the Census population 
figures and develop a sampling plan for selecting tort, contract and 
real property rights jury and bench trial cases in the 45 sites. The 
grantee will be required to secure approval for the data collection 
from the chief judge of the State court of general jurisdiction in each 
county.
    2. Develop a collection instrument that gathers data on the 
specific type of tort, contract, and real property rights cases, type 
of trial, plaintiff and defendant types, filing date, answer date, 
trial date, verdict date, number of days in trial, type of injury in 
malpractice cases, type of defendant in malpractice cases, permanence 
of injury in malpractice cases, type of product in product liability 
cases, pro se litigants, trial winners, economic and noneconomic money 
damages awarded, punitive damages awarded, case appealed, and outcome 
of appeal. The BJS program manager must approve the data collection 
form before data collection can begin.
    3. Collect data on tort, contract, and real property rights cases 
disposed of by jury or bench trial in the 45 sites. This may entail 
training and paying court staff to assist with data collection.
    4. Develop analysis weights so statistics generated from the data 
collection are applicable to the largest 75 counties and construct 
replicate weights so that standard errors for the

[[Page 42682]]

estimates can be generated using WesVar PC.
    5. Write profiles of the 45 State courts' civil litigation process, 
and review and update State contributory negligence rules.
    6. Deliver to BJS an electronic version of the data in SPSS format 
and supporting documentation. Documentation should include, but is not 
limited to, a comprehensive codebook detailing variable positions, data 
coding, variable and value labels, procedures for data verification, 
any recoding implemented during the data cleaning process, and copies 
of all programs used to generate data or published statistics. All data 
and documentation will be posted on the BJS website, and data archived 
at the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research 
(ICPSR). All data collected under the project remains property of BJS 
until such time that BJS releases the data to the public. The grantee 
may not share or release any data collected under the project without 
prior written approval from BJS.
    7. Develop a detailed timetable for each task in the project. Data 
collection should begin within four months of the project start and be 
completed within 12 months. After the BJS project manager has agreed to 
the timetable, all work must be completed as scheduled.

Award Procedures and Evaluation Criteria

    Proposals should describe the plan and implementation strategy to 
accomplish each of the activities outlined in the Scope of Work. 
Information on staffing levels and qualifications should be included 
for each task and descriptions of experience relevant to the project. 
Resumes of the proposed project director and key staff should be 
enclosed with the proposal.
    Applications will be reviewed competitively. The final selection 
decision will be made by the Acting Director of BJS. The applicant will 
be evaluated on the basis of:
    1. Ability to complete Scope of Work with documented evidence of 
research expertise and experience in sample design, objective data 
gathering, data coding, entry and verification, project documentation, 
and the production of public use data files. This includes availability 
of an adequate computing environment, knowledge of standard social 
science data processing software, and demonstrated ability to produce 
SPSS readable data files for analysis and report production.
    2. Knowledge of relevant civil justice issues regarding tort, 
contract, and real property rights cases and prior research in this 
area. Applicants should be familiar with the findings from the six BJS 
reports produced from the 1992 and 1996 Civil Justice Survey of State 
Courts. Copies of these reports are available from the BJS website 
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs or the National Criminal Justice Reference 
Service, 1-800-732-3277. The application should include a summary of 
key findings from these reports and outline how the current project 
would gather the same type of information for comparative purposes and 
address additional topics.
    3. Availability of qualified professional, field and support staff, 
and suitable equipment for data gathering and processing. This includes 
expertise in multi-stage sampling, probability sampling techniques and 
standard error estimation from sample data.
    4. Demonstrated fiscal, management, staff, and organizational 
capability to provide sound management for this project.

Application and Award Process

    An original and three (3) copies of the full proposal must be 
submitted including:
     Standard Form 424, Application for Federal Assistance
     OJP Form 7150/1, Budget Detail Worksheet
     OJP Form 4000/3, Assurances
     OJP Form 4061/6, Certification Regarding Lobbying, 
Debarment, Suspension, and Other Responsibility Matters; Drug Free 
Workplace Requirements
     OJP Form 7120-1, Accounting System and Financial 
Capability Questionnaire (to be submitted by applicants who have not 
previously received Federal funds from the Office of Justice Programs).
    These forms can be obtained online from http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/apply.htm.
    In addition, fund recipients are required to comply with 
regulations designed to protect human subjects and ensure 
confidentiality of data. In accordance with 28 CFR Part 22, a Privacy 
Certificate must be submitted to BJS. Furthermore, a Screening Sheet 
for Protection of Human Subjects must be completed prior to the award 
being issued. Questions regarding Protection of Human Subjects and/or 
Privacy Certificate requirements can be directed to the Human Subjects 
Protection Officer (HSPO) at (202) 616-3282 [This is not a toll free 
number].
    Proposals must include a project narrative and detailed budget. The 
project narrative should describe activities as discussed in the Scope 
of Work and address the evaluation criteria. The detailed budget must 
provide detailed costs including salaries of staff involved in the 
project and the portion of those salaries to be paid from the award, 
fringe benefits paid to each staff person, travel costs, supplies 
required for the project, sub-contractual agreements, and other 
allowable costs. The grant award will be made for a period of 24 
months.

Lawrence A. Greenfeld,
Acting Director, Bureau of Justice Statistics.
[FR Doc. 01-20433 Filed 8-13-01; 8:45 am]
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