Court Management Research Articles

Management Innovation at the Brazilian Superior Tribunal of Justice

We describe administrative reform involving management innovation undertaken at the Superior Tribunal of Justice, Brazil’s highest appellate court for infra-constitutional cases. The innovation is the introduction of a new management model based on strategic planning and a process management approach to work processes. Introduction of the new model has been supported by the use of information technology and project management techniques. Qualitative methods were used for data collection and analysis. Findings reveal that the innovation is contributing to the development of a systemic overview of key processes, reducing the fragmenting effects of the division of work activities within the Tribunal. At least three new organizational routines or capabilities have been developed as a result of the innovation studied: Electronic Court Management, Project Management, and Process Management. The paper contributes to knowledge about court management, a field that has received little research attention in the public administration literature.

PERAMPASAN DAN PENGEMBALIAN BARANG BUKTI ALAT ANGKUT TINDAK PIDANA ILLEGAL LOGGING DALAM MEWUJUDKAN RASA KEADILAN ( Studi Putusan di Pengadilan Negeri Kandangan, Kabupaten Hulu Sungai Selatan dan Pengadilan Negeri Purbalingga, Kabupaten Purbalingga )

PERAMPASAN DAN PENGEMBALIAN BARANG BUKTI ALAT ANGKUT Studies of Decision Number 14/Pid.B/2006/PN.Kgn jo Number 37/PID/2006/PT.BJM shows that the judge was correct in sentencing, but on the evidence they have different opinions. Courts of first return of the evidence to its owner, while the appeals court that the evidence seized goods for the country. This appeals court decision in accordance with the provisions of Article 78 paragraph (15) of Law Number 41 Year 1999 on Forestry, the Supreme Guide of the Technical Judicial and Court Management in 2005 and the Circular of the Supreme Court (SEMA) No. 01 Year 2008. Here the Panel of Judges to act only as an oral (funnel) laws which in French is called "He boushe de la loi." In Decision Number 44/Pid.B/2009/PN.Pbg jo Number 371/Pid/2009/PT.Smg is already really good against the imposition of the penalty or against the evidence that is returned to the beneficiary even though this decision does not match the above rules . Thus, the High Court Judges Semarang sense of justice is more priority than legal certainty.Keyword: sentencing, evidence, justice, legal certainty, illegal logging.

Time Standards as a Court Management Tool: The Experience in American State and Local Trial Courts

As a public institution, the courts must be accountable for their use of a nation’s resources. The institutional independence of the judiciary from political influences and the decisional independence of individual judges in specific cases are intended not for the personal benefit of judges, but for the benefit of the society as a whole and of all those who come before the courts. Indeed, the very legitimacy of government as a whole can be powerfully reinforced by the effective operation of an independent judiciary.

Specialty Groups for Drug Court Participants

This study describes and evaluates specialty groups added to the traditional drug court services in Orange County, California, with a goal of increasing program retention and successful completion (graduation) rates for drug court participants. These enhanced treatment groups added an average of 90 minutes of specialty group therapy to traditional services offered to 139 drug court participants between January 2004 and March 2005. Data were gathered from various sources, including the drug court management information system (MIS) and probation records, as well as pre- and post-test surveys for each specialty group offered. The results suggest three specialty counseling groups (alcohol recovery, mask of addiction, and journaling) were related to positive outcomes in drug court. Limitations of this study include the small sample sizes in some of the specialty groups, as well as the typical enrollment/onset of group therapy that generally occurs as clients successfully progress toward graduation. This resea...

Supervisory Control and Court Management

The International Journal for Court Administration (IJCA) is an electronic journal which focuses on court, judicial, and justice system administration, management, and governance. It provides a platform for the professional exchange of knowledge, experience and research in those areas for a diverse audience of practitioners and academics.Its scope is international. The editors welcome submissions from court officials, judges, justice ministry officials, academic researchers and consultants whose work and interests lie in the practical aspects of the effective administration of justice.

Enhancing Drug Court Success

This study evaluates the impact of enhanced drug court services in a large county in Southern California. These enhanced services, including specialty counseling groups, educational/employment resources, and increased Residential Treatment (RT) beds, were designed to increase program retention and successful completion (graduation) of drug court. This study examines outcomes for 477 male and 273 female drug court participants between January 2004 and March 2005 in Orange County, California. Data were gathered from various sources including the Drug Court management information system (MIS) and probation records. The results suggest that several enhancements individually increase participation retention (as opposed to termination) in drug court, particularly education, employment, RT, and two specialty counseling groups (Alcohol Recovery and Mask of Addiction). Similarly, participant graduation rates were improved with the individual effects of education, employment, and the same two specialty counseling groups. The combination of RT, specialty counseling groups, and employment achievement increased graduation rates for drug court participants. This research suggests further examination of these variables in alternate settings to determine the extent to which these strong but preliminary results are generalizable.

Internal and External Dialogue: A Method for Quality Court Management

The International Journal for Court Administration (IJCA) is an electronic journal which focuses on court, judicial, and justice system administration, management, and governance. It provides a platform for the professional exchange of knowledge, experience and research in those areas for a diverse audience of practitioners and academics.Its scope is international. The editors welcome submissions from court officials, judges, justice ministry officials, academic researchers and consultants whose work and interests lie in the practical aspects of the effective administration of justice.

Judicial System Restructuring and Modernization in Abu Dhabi

The purpose of this article is to provide a practical overview of the recently initiated modernization of Abu Dhabi’s judicial system. Beginning in 2007, Abu Dhabi’s Government launched a comprehensive effort to transform the Emirate’s judicial system. While the implementation of these reforms is ongoing, with the adoption of the law in May 2007 establishing the new judicial architecture the initial phase of the modernization program is already complete. The restructuring process encompasses court management and administration reform, a new judicial training regime, a redesigned organizational structure for the Emirate’s Judicial Department and courts, and the establishment of a system-wide strategic planning and budgeting process. Many of these initiatives are supported by applying advanced IT-based applications. Given the early achievements and ambitious broader aims of the restructuring process, Abu Dhabi’s example is relevant not only to the other Emirates within the Federal UAE system, but also within the context of the wider Middle East region.

(A Study on the Correlation between the Ownership Ratio of KDIC of Defaulted Financial Institutions and the Recovery Ratio)

Korean Abstract: 본 연구는 공적자금투입 후 예금보험공사 등을 통하여 파산재단업무가 법적 및 사실상 종결된 은행, 증권, 보험, 종금, 저축은행 및 신협 등 386개 금융기관들의 파산재단종결기간, 채권회수율, 파산재단에 대한 예금보험공사 및 기타채권자들의 지분율과 채권회수율간의 관계 등을 살펴보고 공적자금회수율 극대화를 위한 정책적 함의를 제시하는데 있다. 파산재단종결 및 회수율 등에 대한 주요 분석결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 6개 업종 평균파산재단 종결기간은 3년 5개월로 나타났으며, 신협의 파산재단 종결기간이 3년 2개월로 가장 낮았으며, 은행의 종결기간이 5년 11개월로 가장 긴 것으로 나타났다. 둘째, 채권회수율의 경우, 신협 및 종금사의 회수율이 61% 및 59% 수준으로 다른 업종의 파산재단들 보다 상대적으로 높은 것으로 나타났으며, 은행의 채권회수율이 가장 낮은 것으로 나타났다. 셋째, 저축은행 및 신협 파산재단에 대한 예금보험공사의 채권지분율과 단순채권회수율 및 화폐의 시간적 가치를 고려한 할인된 현금회수율간의 관계를 실증분석한 결과 예금보험공사의 채권지분율이 높아질수록 채권회수율도 통계적으로 유의한 수준에서 높아지는 것으로 나타났다. 넷째, 채권회수율에 대하여 파산재단 자산규모 및 파산재단 종결기간도 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났으나 예금보험공사 채권지분율의 영향력이 통계적으로 유의한 수준에서 가장 높은 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 실증분석결과는 향후 예금보험공사의 파산재단관리에 관한 정책수립에 다소나마 도움을 줄 수 있을 것으로 사료된다. English Abstract: We study an effective resolution methods of defaulted financial institutions to maximize the recovery ratio of public funds injected by KDIC. For this purpose, we employ 386 defaulted financial institutions including banks, securities and insurance companies, etc. graduated from the court protection legally and practically. Especially, we make use of several data such as completion period of court protection, recovery ratio of bond holders, and ownership ratio of KDIC and other stake-holders against these 386 defaulted financial institutions. The major finding are as follows; First, The finalized period from court protection of 6 financial industries was about 3 years and 5 months. It takes 3 years and 2 months to finish the court management of credit union but that of bank needed much longer time, 3 years and 11 months. Second, according to recovery ratio of stake-holders to defaulted financial institutions, those of credit union and merchant banks are approximately 61% and 59% respectively which is relative higher than that of banks. Third, according to the empirical studies investigated the relationship between the ownership ratio of KDIC and that of other stake-holders against assets of defaulted financial institutions under court management, we find that the recovery ratio goes up as the stakeholding ratio of KDIC increase at a statistically significance level. Finally, although both the asset size and termination period of court management have an impact on the recovery ratio, the ownership ratio of KDIC to the defaulted financial institution has a relatively greater influence on the recovery ratio at a statistically significant level. From the above results, we might infer that it is advisable for KDIC to employ the tentative settlement system as one of the major instruments to maximize the recovery ratio of the injected public funds.

Can Us-Type Court Management Approaches Work In Civil Law Systems? Experiences From The Balkans And Beyond

The benefit of applying modern management approaches to court operations to ensuring access to justice, timely and transparent dispositions, and increased public trust in courts is recognized in many countries. In the USA, the art of applying modern management techniques to court operations has evolved over the past 30 years into a now solidly established profession. Since the underlying principles and techniques of modern court management, such as case flow management, goal-oriented performance measures, workload assessments, customer surveys, etc., are derived from general management concepts they are not tied to a particular legal system or framework and can be successfully applied in non-US systems if they are properly adjusted. Interested in the positive results of court management in the USA, researchers and practitioners in several European countries have been looking at the applicability of the approaches used in the USA to improve their own ability to manage court processes more efficiently. Since court management has become a main staple of reforming court operations in the USA, it is not surprising that US-funded development assistance in the Balkan states and other countries often involves transferring court management US-style into the newly evolving democracies as part of rule of law or commercial sector development assistance. These projects frequently introduce, among others, case flow management techniques that sometimes seem to be in conflict with underlying legal principles or procedural laws, and often defy the local legal culture. The US-funded assistance programs are often introduced parallel to efforts funded by European and other donors, which may take and suggest different approaches to the host country. As a result, confusion and insecurity about which approaches are appropriate for a particular country can arise and impede much needed reforms or lead to legislative and regulatory changes that do not mesh well or even conflict with other parts of the legal framework. This article reviews the role of US-based court management approaches in recent court reform efforts under way in Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia and, in light of lessons learned there and in other countries, assesses the reform processes applied and their status. It also outlines how these court management approaches fit into non-US court systems, how they can be adjusted according to individual country needs and what the main obstacles are that such reform efforts generally face.

Domestic Sexual Assault: A New Opportunity for Court Response

ABSTRACTBased on research conducted for the State Justice Institute, this article examines the invisibility of domestic sexual assault—also known as intimate partner sexual assault or spousal, wife, or marital rape—from the perspective of community and court responses to domestic violence and sexual assault. The article identifies the consequences of invisibility of domestic sexual assault, including the potential for lethality, and offers suggestions to courts for improving outcomes for victims and perpetrators. Areas explored include data collection and analysis, judicial leadership, and specialization in victim response systems, law enforcement and prosecution, court management, and offender intervention.

Public Opinion, Popular Politics and the Union of 1707

In his 1964 article, ‘The Making of the Treaty of Union of 1707,’ William Ferguson established an intellectual framework that has come to dominate received opinion on Union. Ferguson argued that Union was a ‘political job’ in which the Court used economic incentives, patronage and bribery to secure the passage of the Union treaty in the Scottish Parliament to satisfy English political imperatives. Ferguson provided evidence for the well-timed payment of salary arrears to members of Parliament and painted a picture of the Scottish people betrayed by their Parliament. Since 1964, historians have battled over the relative importance of Court management in the making of Union. The machinations of English and Scottish ministers have been emphasised by P. W. J. Riley’s perspectives on Scottish politics under William and Anne, as well as by Paul H. Scott’s accounts of Union. In response, T.C. Smout and, more recently, Christopher Whatley have stressed the importance of economic pro-unionism among Scottish parliamentarians. As these debates have raged, however, attention has been distracted from the flip side: popular opposition to union. Ferguson’s ‘political job’ narrative rests on the idea that ‘the people’ of Scotland opposed union. This has defined the historian’s task as the explanation of how union came to happen, not why or how it was resisted. Historians have taken popular aversion to union for granted, reading anti-union addresses and riots as the spontaneous expressions of a patriotic Scottish mentality. To the Scottish ‘popular mind,’ Ferguson tells us, the treaty was a ‘base betrayal’ because it destroyed ‘centuries of hard struggle for national survival;’ quite simply, the ‘idea of The Scottish Historical Review, Volume LXXXII, 2: No. 214: October 2003, 226–260

The National Center for State Courts' Court Information Web Site: CourTopics

In 2002 the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) launched its Court Information Web site, a content-rich collection of knowledge directed toward the state justice com munity. One of the most comprehensive compilations of state court information in the world, this one-of-a-kind Web site is a product of the Center's unique position in the state court arena. CourTopics, as it was later named, provides a specific port of entry to knowledge and information resources the NCSC retains that can help courts in their mis sion to better serve the public and operate more effectively. CourTopics was made possible by the melding of two prominent NCSC resources funded by the State Justice Institute. In 2000 the Information Service and the Technology Information Service merged into Knowledge and Information Services (KIS). KIS staff are the content managers of CourTopics and for over thirty years have responded to requests for information from the justice community in over 125 court related topic areas. Now these information specialists are transferring this knowledge onto CourTopics. The collection consists of 125 topics arranged into 18 major subject areas. Each topic features an Overview, a Resource Guide or Bibliography, NCSC documents that can be opened in PDF format, and a Frequently Asked Questions section. Many of the topics also include lists of what is happening in the states relevant to the topic. To make this a one-stop shopping forum for those seeking information about court issues, other NCSC divisions contribute their resources, as well. For example, the Research Division provides materials from their projects and publications, such as juries, public trust and confidence, trial court performance standards, statistics, court interpretation, and family issues. The Institute of Court Management contributes their course descriptions and Court Executive Development Program papers. Court Consulting Services offers sum maries of their recent projects, while Technology Services supplies content about their work on functional standards and electronic filing, as well as presentations from Court Technology Conferences. The Government Relations Office provides Issues Briefs on relevant concerns for courts in Congress, and the International Division brings a world wide flavor to the Web site.

Responsibilities and Effectiveness of the Juvenile Court in Handling Dependency Cases

The juvenile court's role in handling child abuse and neglect cases changed and expanded greatly after the passage of the federal Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act in 1980 and following the enactment of many similar state laws. These federal and state "permanency planning" laws require child welfare agencies to make reasonable efforts to avoid the break-up of families, where safe and practical, and direct the courts to monitor these efforts. The laws also require both agencies and courts to establish timely permanent new homes for children when preservation of families is not possible. The effectiveness of juvenile courts in fulfilling the laws' mandates has been uneven because of variations in judicial workload, court management, and relationships between the courts and the child welfare agencies. The quality of legal representation of children, parents, and agencies is often compromised by high caseloads, low status and pay, lack of experience, and rapid turnover. Courts vary in their capabilities to monitor agencies' permanency planning efforts and in their power to order specific placements and services. The proper role of the court and the agency in this regard is a matter of continuing debate. The author concludes that efforts currently under way in the states to reform the juvenile court's handling of abuse and neglect cases are cause for optimism.

Case Management Techniques Work

In 1989 a large metropolitan general jurisdiction courtfaced a backlog of 70,000 pending cases and a three-and-one-half-year wait to trial. The court was anxious to test the concept of court management of cases with a practical application. The court, working with the local bar on a delay reduction task force (DRTF), adopted the goals of eliminating the backlog and reducing the time-in-process to 18 months for civil cases and 12 months for domestic cases. After a review of the literature and techniques used elsewhere, the DRTF implemented three case management programs: a joint status report requirement, case schedules issued at filing, and a hybrid individual calendar program.The court found that although no one program met all its goals, the combination of these programs helped the court achieve its goals and led to an unexpected reduction in the number of trials and the average length of trial. Understanding how these programs affected the court’s case processing offers practical, relevant information ...

Everything You Have Always Wanted to Know About Court Administration and Management but Were Afraid to Ask

Everything You Have Always Wanted to Know About Court Administration and Management but Were Afraid to Ask

Special Thanks: Keith O. Boyum, Editor-in-Chief, Justice System Journal, 1989-94

The Justice System Journal (JSJ) has been in able and caring hands the last six years. With this issue, Keith 0. Boyum, the John Brown Mason Professor of Political Science, California State University at Fullerton, ends his tenure as the Editor-in-Chief of JSJ. He is succeeded by Roger A. Hanson, senior staff associate with the Research Division of the National Center for State Courts. During his stewardship, editor Boyum successfully and admirably steered JSJ through an ever-changing landscape of justice system scholarship and praxis. In doing so, he helped define and shape that landscape. The special issues on alternative dispute resolution and tort reform are just two good examples of this defining and shaping. Editor Boyum also managed to facilitate understanding and cooperation, or at least to keep the peace, between the academics and the practitioners who wrote or edited for JSJ?a success at building bridges that should not be undervalued. Finally, editor Boyum weathered a significant restructuring of the National Center for State Courts that saw the Institute for Court Management (the National Center's education and communication division and the publisher of JSJ) move from Denver, Colo., to National Center headquarters in Williamsburg, Va. He did all this with good grace and style, at all times keeping his eye on the prize?the vitality of JSJ. On behalf of the JSJ editorial board, the Institute for Court Management, and the National Center for State Courts, I thank and acknowledge the debt of gratitude the field of justice administration owes Keith O. Boyum for his good stewardship of JSJ these last few years.

Court Management Past, Present, and Future: A Comment on Lawson and Howard

In a comment upon and extension of Lawson and Howard’s contribution to this issue, the authors pursue three major themes. The first is the ends served by court managers. The second is the control and operations of urban trial courts as the stimulus to the development of the court management profession. The third is seven themes that require future address by court management professionals. In the authors’ view, these issues will demand changes in what courts do and how they do it. This comment is adapted from a paper originally prepared for the Second National Conference on Court Management, Phoenix, Arizona, 1990, and from a somewhat different version of the original paper published in The Court Manager. The Justice System Journal is grateful to its sister publication for cordially making the article available for inclusion here.

Symbiotic Evolution: The Relationship of Court Management to Judicial and Management Education

This article reviews recently collected data on how court managers see their jobs and on the scope of continuing management education opportunities for judges and the court managers. These data are assessed for implications about the future of court management and court management education. The data portray a rich array of tasks and requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities associated with the contemporary court manager’s job. An almost equally wide array of management training topics are seen to have emerged in response. A reciprocal cause-and-effect relationship is hypothesized between how we view the court manager’s job and the substantive array of management education topics.

Development of the Profession of Court Management: A History With Commentary

This article reviews the evolution of court management in a succinct historical overview. The state level saw the first major efforts at developing court management, essentially driven by increasing caseloads and population increases. Court management in the trial courts followed. More broadly, the authors see court reform movements as the essential setting for the development of professional management. Issues included court organization, structure, accountability, efficiency, effectiveness, caseflow management and processing time standards, sources of funding and many others still familiar to the field. Educational programs emerged in a context of the development of a professional and scholarly literature on court management. The article ultimately considers whether court management has achieved the status of a profession. The authors see an “emergent” profession in which some or most of the generally accepted criteria for a profession are met.