NCJ Number
79243
Journal
Judicature Volume: 65 Issue: 2 Dated: (August 1981) Pages: 76-85
Date Published
1981
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This article reports a study that identified the legal community together rather than any single actor, as determining the speed at which cases are processed. Such a consensus makes it difficult to more cases any faster than 'normal'.
Abstract
The research attempted to measure several key dimensions of local legal culture in four urban courts; the major focus was on the attitudes of practitioners in those courts. Practitioners in four cities were asked the same set of questions in response to 12 hypothetical cases representing a mix of the factors generally held to influence the disposition of criminal cases. Questions were designed in specific terms to ask the general question of how this case would be dealt with in a properly operating and adequately funded court system. The attempt was made to tap the respondents' beliefs as to an appropriate period of time from arrest to commencement of trial. Attitudinal questions also sought to illuminate the linkage between practitioner norms and resistance to reform. To compare attitudes to actual court performance, measures of performance were obtained through a random sample of about 500 disposed felony cases drawn in each court. The major conclusion was that individual court systems could be characterized by distinct local norms concerning the proper pace of litigation and that these norms were linked to the actual speed at which cases move in the courts. The study suggests that practitioner norms exercised a reciprocal influence upon practice and that the existence of the norms explains at least some of the legendary resistance of trial courts to attempts to accelerate the disposition of cases. Footnotes, tables, and graphs are provided.