NCJ Number
141004
Journal
Justice System Journal Volume: 16 Issue: 1 Dated: (1992) Pages: 89-99
Date Published
1992
Length
11 pages
Annotation
A joint Bench/Bar Delay Reduction Task Force, formed in 1987 to deal with the King County Superior Court (Seattle, Washington) huge backlog of undisposed cases and 3-year wait for a trial, implemented a plan that eliminated the backlog, brought the length of time from filing to disposition for domestic cases to 12 months and for civil cases to 18 months, and organized a case-scheduling system to assure the speedy processing of all future cases.
Abstract
All cases now are on a court-monitored schedule as a result of backlog reduction and case management projects. Prior to hearing new filings, all pending cases were disposed. A Joint Status Report project guaranteed an orderly transition into court management of cases and a planned approach to meeting the court-adopted case flow standards. The court has implemented quarterly progress reports that describe the five factors: filings by case type, dispositions by case type, time in process to disposition, rate of compliance for each monitored event, and age and status of all pending cases. This routine report information allows the court to monitor the flow of cases in and to predict the level of judicial resources necessary at any given time. Future plans include reducing case management schedules to 12 months for civil and 9 months for domestic cases. 2 figures and 1 table