NCJ Number
132672
Date Published
1990
Length
34 pages
Annotation
This report presents a method by which court administrators in New South Wales (Australia) can determine when and how they should increase court capacity so as to meet an increase in the demand for court services.
Abstract
The proposed method measures the demand for court time as the sum of the hearing times of all cases. The method relies only on the assumption that case hearing times are independent of each other. The method described for choosing the optimum court capacity takes into account both the risk of demand exceeding capacity and the likely amount of spare capacity. Also, the report discusses alternatives to changing capacity by assessing the impact of changes in the factors that influence demand for court services. These factors are the number of cases and the mean and variance of case hearing times. The report details the mathematical theory that underlies the method for determining an optimum court capacity, but application of the method involves the use of a few simple formulas that can be easily programmed on a calculator. Use of the method requires the measurement of some quantities not usually found in the statistical output of court information systems. Accurate measurements must be taken of the amount of court capacity made available for the hearing and disposition of cases, the mean and standard deviation of hearing durations, and the number of cases that must be resolved in a year. 9 figures, 6 notes, and supplementary appended information