NCJ Number
85307
Date Published
1982
Length
8 pages
Annotation
Court managers have generally merely survived by performing functions that maintain the status quo while failing to undertake aggressive management steps that would increase court efficiency and effectiveness by reducing case delay and backlog and improving practices that will increase fairness and justice.
Abstract
Court managers have proliferated, and they are working at the functions they have been given to do, such as budgeting, planning, space management, the design of information systems, personnel work, and allocating resources in their advisory roles. Success in court management, however, must be measured not by a court manager's faithfulness in performing housekeeping functions but by whether progress is made toward the goals of the court, which are to do justice in individual cases, present the appearance of justice, and provide a reliable formal record of the legal status of defendants. If a substantial time elapses between the occurrence of disputed events and the trying of the issues of fact, memory is lost or distorted and the likelihood that justice will be done is diminished. Court administrators are responsible for seeing that cases are resolved speedily. Generally, this is not happening. Court managers should also speak out on and take action on expanding the release of defendants on their own recognizance. After measuring their performance by progress toward the goals of the court, court managers should take the risk of challenging the obstacles to the achievement of these goals, even when those obstacles include the routine practices of lawyers and judges. Two references are listed.