Beyond the Team: Renegotiating the Judge-administrator Partnership

• NCJ Number: 136335
• Journal: Justice System Journal Volume: 15 Issue: 2 Dated: (1991) Pages: special issue,P 652-666
• Author(s): R B Hoffman
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 15 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This review of recommendations for developing a team involving judges and court administrators argues that teams are not enough and that the concept is not always clearly defined.

Abstract

The team concept has been the dominant theme of the literature on the issue for many years. However, the concept has been applied in different ways to the three main components of court system activity: judicial administration, court management, and case management. The team concept works well at the trial court level of case flow management, but it has made less apparent progress at the court management level. Therefore, the team concept should be used carefully, with administrators functioning independently and not as part of a judge-administrator team when dealing with critical management issues. Administrators at all levels should surely be entrusted with nonjudicial personnel decisions as well as budgeting and information system development. 31 references