NCJ Number
85570
Date Published
1982
Length
169 pages
Annotation
This study examines significant issues in court management -- structure, effectiveness, human factors, the process of change, communication, decisionmaking, and leadership. It relates management principles to policy issues in four key areas: speedy trials, jury trials, the right to counsel, and affirmative action/equal opportunity.
Abstract
Management theories are studied in relation to caseflow, personnel, finance, recordkeeping, and organizational approaches to management. Court managers must become concerned with both abstract and concrete aspects of management, although they must be wary of managerial fads, such as management-by-objectives and zero-based budgeting. Court managers should maintain the same high standards as judges so that cases will be decided impartially. The future of court management hinges on five significant factors: rising energy costs, which will increase the density of areas to be served; reaction to a conservative fiscal ethic; the changing nature of court caseloads; the impact of continued technological change in information processing; and the renewed search for alternatives to court adjudication, such as lay judges and new conflict-resolution institutions and processes. Tables, figures, chapter notes, name and subject indexes, and about 125 references are provided.