Tools are wonderful aren’t they? As one of the two Court Analysts for the Division of State Court Administration, I use tools to help me in my job analyzing court-submitted data. Sometimes, I only need a pad of paper and pencil, or a basic calculator, to do my job. At other times, my sophisticated computer helps generate formulas in an Excel document.
Recently, the National Center for State Courts presented a conference in Indianapolis on Court Performance Standards, using CourTools, a measurement system designed to evaluate a court’s performance. Attendees included Indiana appellate and trial court judges, and court personnel from around the country, who wanted to determine if CourTools was viable and valuable. CourTools evaluates a court’s performance in:
- Access and Fairness
- Clearance Rates
- Time to Disposition
- Age of Active Pending Caseload
- Trial Date Certainty
- Reliability and Integrity of Case Files
- Collection of Monetary Penalties
- Effective Use of Jurors
- Court Employee Satisfaction
- Cost Per Case
It establishes standards and then compares those standards against the previous results. Each performance measure comes with step-by-step instructions on how to begin, conduct, and report your findings. CourTools may be found on the National Center for State Courts website at www.ncsconline.org.
After selecting one of the ten performance areas, you can gather sample surveys, plug in your data and analyze your results. The National Center has staff available to assist you or you can call the Division of State Court Administration at (317) 232-2542.
The conference attendees learned about each measure. Then they were divided into ten groups, conducted a measurement study, and presented their results. The National Center recommends focusing on just one or two measurements at a time. By doing so, it will be easier to implement changes needed, if any, based on findings and recommendations.
Judge Gregory J. Donat, Tippecanoe Superior Court 4, was one of the presenters at the conference. He had measured the area of Access and Fairness, and specifically the courts’ accessibility to and treatment of the public in Tippecanoe County. The judge surveyed the public over a two-year period.
The first year revealed two things:
- 1) the courthouse had Roman numerals identifying courtrooms and this confused the public because the printed instructions that sent them to their assigned courtroom had Arabic numerals; and
- 2) people entering the courthouse did not like using the same door as the prisoners.
The Tippecanoe County judges have implemented changes to address both of these perceived problems.
Judge Donat has already completed another measure and has posted his results on the CourTools website. Take a look at this site and decide if CourTools is right for your court.