The U.S. financial crisis, while bad for many Americans, may have actually been good for some lawyers—particularly those who practiced in federal courts.

New criminal and civil cases filed in U.S. federal courts increased more than 13% between the end of fiscal year 2007 and fiscal year 2011, which set a five-year high with 402,885 new cases filed nationwide.

However, that growth may be tapering off a bit. New case filings fell 4% to 386,664 cases nationwide in fiscal year 2012, which ended Sept. 30, according to new case management statistics just released by Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.