IN ADDITION TO STATISTICAL DATA ON THE WORK OF THE VARIOUS COURTS IN 1976-1977, A NARRATIVE SECTION SUMMARIZES PROGRESS IN THE AREAS OF COURT CALENDAR MANAGEMENT, COURT UNIFICATION, RESEARCH ON SENTENCE DISPARITY, PRETRIAL INTERVENTION, AND IMPROVED PROBATION SERVICES. THE COURT MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS VARY FROM COUNTY TO COUNTY AND INCLUDE COMPUTERIZED DATA SYSTEMS, IN-DEPTH STUDIES OF COURT RESOURCES, EXPERIMENTS WITH JURY PROCEDURES, AND EFFORTS TO REDUCE PRETRIAL DELAY. TELEPHONE RECORDINGS TO INFORM JURORS WHETHER THEY WILL BE NEEDED HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED IN BERGEN COUNTY. IT HAS SAVED ABOUT 33 PERCENT IN JUROR FEES. MIDDLESEX COUNTY IS EXPERIMENTING WITH THE ONE-DAY, ONE-TRIAL SYSTEM AND IS ELIMINATING MOST STATUTORY EXEMPTIONS. EFFORTS ARE BEING MADE IN SEVERAL COUNTIES TO DRAW LISTS OF JURORS FROM MORE THAN ONE SOURCE TO BROADEN COMMUNITY REPRESENTATION. THE UNIFICATION PROJECT HAS COMPLETED AN IN-DEPTH STUDY OF ALL COURTS IN THE NEW JERSEY SYSTEM AND IS NOW WORKING ON A DETAILED PLAN FOR FULL UNIFICATION OF ALL TRIAL COURTS ABOVE THE MUNICIPAL LEVEL. THE SENTENCE DISPARITY STUDY IS GATHERING DATA. THE STATISTICAL SECTION SHOWS THAT 1977 HAD A 2.5 PERCENT INCREASE IN NUMBER OF CASES OF ALL TYPES, BUT A 6.9 PERCENT DECREASE IN CRIMINAL CASES OVER 1976. JUVENILE CASES DECREASED BY 2.7 PERCENT. TOTAL CASES DISPOSED OF INCREASED 2.3 PERCENT. THE CRIMINAL CASE BACKLOG INCREASED 3.8 PERCENT, THE JUVENILE BACKLOG 4.5 PERCENT. IN ALL, THE COURTS HANDLED A RECORD NUMBER OF CASES IN 1977, A TOTAL OF 555,371, OF WHICH 25,748 WERE CRIMINAL CASES AND 82,243 JUVENILE CASES. JUVENILE FIGURES ALSO INCLUDE CASES OF JUVENILES IN NEED OF SUPERVISION, A TOTAL OF 8,843 IN 1977. THE TOTAL CASELOAD HAS INCREASED 30 PERCENT OVER 1972. THE JUVENILE CASELOAD HAS INCREASED 39.8 PERCENT, BUT THE CRIMINAL CASELOAD HAS DECREASED 11.6 PERCENT SINCE 1972. (GLR)