MODELING COURT DELAY |
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| Authors: | STEVEN FLANDERS |
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| Institution: | recently designated Circuit Executive for the United States Courts of the Second Circuit. Since 1972 he has been a Project Director, Federal Judicial Center, and author of numerous empirical studies of court operation. He has also lectured at the Institute for Court Management and served widely as a consultant. |
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| Abstract: | Quantitative modeling using operations research and related techniques has much less promise for mitigating court delay than proponents anticipate. Results to date have been discouraging, largely because trial court process is exceptionally difficult to model. There is no consistent sequence or path, and critical discretionary decisions are made by professionals based on individualized criteria that are hard to code. Also, participants (litigants and lawyers) are not part of the organization in any normal sense: Their very purpose is conflict, and they are as likely to try to subvert the court operation as support it. Manipulating court incentive structures is a more promising management approach. |
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