NCJ Number
82993
Journal
State Court Journal Volume: 6 Issue: 2 Dated: (Spring 1982) Pages: 4-7,32-37
Date Published
1981
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Notable findings are presented from the National Center's 5-year study on reducing trial court delay, and future directions are explored.
Abstract
The study involved a literature review, an examination of data on more than 21,000 cases, hundreds of interviews, and many hours of court observations. The conventional wisdom on reasons for court delay were found wanting. The speed of disposition in civil and criminal litigation could not be ascribed to the length of court backlog, court size, caseload, or trial rate. Both the quantitative and qualitative information produced by the project strongly suggested that both speed and backlog are determined by the established expectations, practices, and informal behavior of judges and attorneys. Court systems become adapted to a given pace of civil and criminal litigation, and that pace has a court backlog of pending cases associated with it. It also has an accompanying backlog of open files in attorney's offices. These expectations and practices, together with court and attorney backlog, comprise the 'local legal culture,' which must be overcome in any attempt to reduce delay. The study indicated that case management by the court could alter the customs of the local legal culture and thus expedite the pace of litigation. The supporting evidence for this, although it came primarily from experiments in Federal trial courts, seems applicable to State courts as well. The most important and difficult change in implementing case management was found to be the altering of long-term expectations and practices of the individual judges and attorneys. Some predictions for the future in reducing trial court delay are offered. Nine notes are provided, and data on criminal and civil disposition time measures are appended.