ife is a game, posited Jerry Seinfeld, and “the lawyer is the only person that has read the inside of the top of the box.” The rest of the men and women are merely players, so when disputes arise, the players depend on the experts to say, “‘Fraid not.”

Roughly 292 disputes arise statewide each day, on average, based on the cases filed in Alaska trial courts in 2022. The Alaska Court System Statistical Annual Report shows a 4.8 percent increase in filings from the year before, and that doesn’t count the ongoing drama of appeals. Most of the increase was in District Courts, driven by a 16 percent rise in minor offense filings, although that was offset by a 13.9 percent drop in misdemeanor cases. Superior Courts saw 27.1 percent more delinquency filings, while child in need of aid filings went down by 11.7 percent. Altogether, 106,690 cases were filed with trial courts, and 98.1 percent of them were concluded, pushing a small backlog into the new year.

According to the report, the most common filings in Superior Court, nearly one-third of the total, are probate cases, which include commitment proceedings, estates, protective orders, and adoptions. Felony trials occupied nearly another third.

For more about the lawyers who are advising and refereeing in these cases, Lincoln Garrick’s “Legal Landscape” analyzes Bar membership demographics, salaries, largest employers, and most common law schools. This edition of Alaska Trends adds to that docket, digesting the annual report of the Alaska Bar Association for 2022.

The gavel is struck. All persons with business before this honorable infographic feature are admonished to draw near and give their attention.