New trends and perspectives on case management: Proposals on contract procedure and case assignment management

Abstract

This essay approaches the latest trends regarding case management in a comparative perspective. Efficiency in the civil justice has become a goal in many legal systems, that provide for a set of discretionary powers for the judges to manage the formalities of in-court proceedings in order to achieve an optimal result. But some of the classical assumptions of case management seem to be falling apart in the past few years. In fact, when one looks at certain trends such as court management, case assignment management, cost management, contract procedure (agreements to define and design the proceedings by contract), new perspectives emerge on who manages, what to manage, the goals to be achieved, and the legal instruments for that. The paper argues that many new structures in court organization and new methods and techniques of case management represent the future of the subject, such as negotiated procedures, multiple-case management, justice outsourcing, delegation and coordination of competences, claims resolution facilities, lawyers litigation networks, specialization of courts and judges, and many others.