NCJ Number
79241
Journal
Judicature Volume: 65 Issue: 2 Dated: (August 1981) Pages: 57-115
Date Published
1981
Length
62 pages
Annotation
This special issue is the second in 3 years to be devoted to an examination of trial court delay, its causes, consequences, and solutions as they reflect the most recent research in this subject.
Abstract
A summary of an evaluation project that researched delay reduction programs in four cities is included. Although this study found no 'quick fix' solutions, it identified some of the factors involved in successful efforts to reduce delay. One such critical factor in court delay is the local legal culture which includes judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and others who use the courts. Followup research on local legal culture is reported, which found that tacit agreement exists among courtroom participants in each locale regarding the pace that cases should follow. Another article reports on the results of work in measuring the progress of civil litigation in Federal and State trial courts. This Civil Litigation Research Project developed a new methodology for examining delay called survival analysis. Survival analysis was applied to data gathered from 12 courts across the country. This approach identified four case characteristics that help predict the pace of litigation, which contrasts with the preceding paper's viewpoint that pace is determined largely by the local legal culture. The final paper assesses the state of knowledge about court delay and concludes that progress is being made toward reducing this serious problem in the system of criminal justice. For individual articles, see NCJ 79242-79244.