Judicial Workload Study for the Superior Court in Yuma County, AZ
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This measure of “what is” allowed the NCSC to develop a set of case weights that measure the status quo of case processing. Judicial Workload Study for the Superior Court in Yuma County, AZ By Margaret Guidero and Suzanne Tallarico Superior Court in Yuma County however, presiding judges in each county our elected board of supervisors, local (the court) is a general jurisdiction have general administrative authority city councils, and state funds and special court with six elected judges and three over all courts and court employees in revenue from many sources. commissioners who serve a population the county. Limited jurisdiction courts The court became aware of court of 160,000 residents. The courts and in Yuma County are located in the four performance measurement tools, like court departments, including juvenile corners of the 5,561 square miles that CourTools, during training presented court, adult probation, and the clerk comprise Yuma County and include by the Institute for Court Management of superior court, employ about 360 three justice courts and four municipal division of the National Center for people. The court system in Arizona is courts. Funding for our court system is State Courts (NCSC) and the Education not a “unified” court in the strict sense, a mix of general funds appropriated by Services Center of the Arizona THE COURT MANAGER VOLUME 25 ISSUE 2 15 Administrative Office of the Courts. processing standards, helped the presiding Presiding Judge Andrew W. Gould judge develop a new case assignment identified the need in the court to protocol that also takes into consideration allocate judicial resources in a way that the subject matter expertise among the improves equity of case assignments judges, judicial workloads based on case and quality of justice and the potential types, case processing timelines, and non- for CourTools to assist with a redesign bench workloads. of Yuma’s case assignment protocols. The data gathering tool, the In August 2007, the court obtained enthusiastic participation of the Yuma a technical assistance grant from the State Superior Court bench, and tireless efforts Justice Institute (SJI.) In collaboration of Tallarico, Schaben, and Presiding with NCSC, Dr. Ingo Keilitz was hired to Judge Gould are presented in narrative present CourTools to the court and assist form for this article. in developing a performance dashboard In 2009, the court conducted a and data-gathering strategies. After judicial workload assessment among implementation of CourTools, the court its judges with the aid of technical was able to publish statistics on its newly assistance grant funds from SJI and designed dashboard and provide this an NCSC consultant. data to local and state funding authorities Caseloads and case types in the to support budget requests. More Superior Court Yuma vary in complexity important, the products of the court and judicial effort required for resolution. performance measures — through the Yuma’s study utilized a weighted mechanics of CourTools — confirm to workload assessment methodology and the public that the court is accountable. a time study data collection procedure In June 2007, the court’s “Court to translate judicial workload into an Performance Measurement System” — estimate of judicial need. The study facilitated by Dr. Keilitz — received utilized two analytical tools: the Arizona Supreme Court Award for • Judicial workload estimate — excellence in the category of “Being judicial workload based on the Accountable.” The award was presented average amount of time a judge to the court by now-retired Chief Justice needs to resolve a case and the Ruth McGregor and then-associate annual number of cases in the court. chief justice and current chief justice, Rebecca White Berch. • Judicial resource assessment In 2008, Judge Gould participated — compares the current available in an NCSC focus group that produced judicial resources to the resource recommendations entitled “A Unifying demand predicted by the model. Framework for Court Performance Measurement;” the Yuma CourTools performance measurement project was presented at the 2008 annual NACM Judicial Workload conference in Chicago, and the Yuma Estimate court received another SJI technical The judicial workload value assistance grant to conduct a statistical represents the minutes of annual analysis of judicial workload. Suzanne case-specific work using case weights Tallarico, an NCSC consultant, assisted and annual filings. This measure the court in developing a judicial uses baseline filing data and current workload data gathering tool. The data, practices. Judges need sufficient time in conjunction with case filings and case 16 www.nacmnet.org to reasonably engage litigants, listen used this data to review the baseline • Judicial Need — difference between to victims, and clearly explain rulings data and make adjustments as needed the judicial demand calculation and and orders — features fundamental to (e.g., areas in which judicial officers do the judicial officer supply the public perception of fairness and not have adequate time to engage in appropriate treatment by the court. certain areas of case processing). Case The first phase of a weighted weights can be adjusted to allow the Judicial Resource Supply workload assessment is the court to move toward “what should be.” The judicial resource supply value is determination of an estimated judicial The Committee reviewed individual the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) workload. Data generated from the study case weights to determine reasonableness positions available to process the court’s are used in conjunction with case filings and the adequacy of effort required work (cases, administrative duties). to develop a judicial officer resource in each case type. This “reality check” needs model. A caseload calculator was indicated that judges frequently have developed to allow the presiding judge inadequate time available to write Judicial Demand to equalize judicial case assignments decisions and issue orders. Case weights according to workload demands. were adjusted accordingly. The judicial demand value is calculated by dividing the judicial workload value by the judicial average Time study Judicial Resource annual availability value. The judicial The time study of a weighted demand value represents the judicial FTEs workload assessment yields individual Assessment needed to process case-specific work. case weights. Case weights are used to The judicial resource need is The judicial average annual calculate the overall judicial workload determined using three steps: availability value is the total amount values. In this study, individual case of time per year that judges have to weights were generated for 23 case types.1 • Judicial Resource Supply — current process their workload. This value was A case weight represents the judicial resources available calculated by the Committee using the average amount of time a judicial • Judicial Demand — calculation of the number of days per year and hours officer needs to process a case from number of judicial officers necessary per day that a judicial officer has to 2 filing to resolution. Final case weights to complete the court’s work work on case-specific and non-case- were developed using a qualitative adjustment process. Qualitative adjustments consider unique aspects of case processing not otherwise captured by the study. Case weight adjustments are accompanied by clear justification. Case weights are applied to annual filings and the result is a workload value. Qualitative Adjustments The study measured how judicial officers in the superior court in Yuma County currently process cases. This measure of “what is” allowed the NCSC to develop a set of case weights that measure the status quo of case processing. The NCSC Advisory Committee (hereinafter Committee) THE COURT MANAGER VOLUME 25 ISSUE 2 17 specific activities. This value accounts Table ES-1: Total Judicial Need for weekends, holidays, sick days, and vacation time. Judicial Resources Superior Applying the case weights to the (FTE) Court Judicial 2009 filings resulted in the workload Officers value. We divided that value by the Judicial Case-Specific Resource 6.50 judge year value and the resulting Supply number was the judicial demand. The Judicial Predicted Resource 7.89 calculated judicial demand for all court- Demand related activities in the Yuma County Supply/Demand Difference -1.39 Superior Court is 7.89 FTEs. Judicial Need The judicial need value was calculated by comparing the predicted (3) to develop a caseload calculator tool results in a measure of annual judicial judicial demand with the judicial to assess judge caseload demands based workload. Divide the workload values resource supply in Yuma. upon the workload standards. by the amount of work time available The study revealed that the for an individual judicial officer, and superior court requires additional the result is the required judicial judicial resources to manage the court’s Overview: Workload resources. This approach allows a court work. Specifically, 1.39 judicial officers Assessment Model to measure resource needs and evaluate (or 1.5 FTEs) are required to adequately resource allocations. handle the caseloads based on 2009 A judicial workload assessment The most credible resource filings. These case weights applied model is a quantitative representation assessment technique, including the to 2010 filings (or projected filings) of variables that determine judicial workload assessment