Court Management Trends

Specialized courts are alternative courts that are narrowly focused in terms of the types of cases they hear. The judges that oversee these courts are considered to be experts in their fields. Cases that fall within their parameter are routed to them. As Zimmer (2009) notes, “by transferring the adjudication of particularly difficult or complex legal issues or factual disputes from the scope of general jurisdiction courts and concentrating their adjudication in a specialized court of limited jurisdiction, several desirable objectives are attained” (p. 1). These desirable objectives include: 1) the efficiency of the judicial system, 2) a more efficient legal system, 3) more uniformity in terms of application of the law, 4) expertise is provided, 5) case management is more improved, 6) eliminates forum shopping by litigants, 7) increases the overall flexibility of the court system, 8) provides an administrative agency review mechanism, and 9) provides consistency of administrative agency law (Zimmer, 2009).
The impact of court consolidation and restructuring on victim rights laws is that it allows victim rights laws to be more readily observed, as consolidation places all information and personnel into a “single circuit court under the appointing authority of the Circuit Clerk” (Mikeska, 2018, p. 1). As victims rights laws are meant to enable victims to have “rights to information about court events, bail release decisions, compensation, and restitution” (Vera Institute of Justice, 2002), consolidation and restructuring can simplify the processes by which victims are entitled to their rights—to information about court events, to bail release decisions, compensation and so on.
The changes that court agencies have made at the local, state and federal level in response to these issues have not been as effective as desired or expected (Vera Institute of Justice, 2002). As the Fund for Modern Courts (2018) points out, the court systems are still too costly at the state level and the confusing nature of their structure prevents litigants from pursuing their suits. At the federal level, Department of Justice personnel are instructed to “make their best efforts to see that crime victims are notified of, and accorded, the rights described in subsection (a). Section 3771(c)(1). However, under section 3771(d)(1), crime victims are now authorized to assert those rights independently. In addition, the federal district courts themselves are now directed, [i]n any court proceeding involving an offense against a crime victim, [to] ensure that the crime victim is afforded the rights described in subsection” (Federal Judicial Center, 2005). This means at the federal level, continued restructuring has to be enacted in order to accommodate victim rights—and that can be very costly, as has been the case at the local level as well, where more staff need to be hired in order to accommodate the victim rights laws that are in place.
The restructuring of courts has the right idea in mind, but simplifying an already largely bureaucratic system is easier said than done and the end result has been well short of the projected outcomes. Aside from frustrating stakeholders in the court system at local, state and federal levels, it has still failed to accommodate victims in terms of the rights afforded them by the Victims Rights act of 2004. This failure to deliver indicates that not only a vast restructuring of the court system is in order but that a more rapid and efficient approach to the law is needed that can fast track litigation, reduce costs for litigants, support the needs of victims while simultaneously enabling attorneys and judges to oversee case loads effectively, and that can reduce the overhead and bureaucratic bungling that so often accompanies case law and court management today.
References
Federal Justice Center. (2005). Crime victims’ rights act of 2004 and the Federal courts.
Retrieved from http://www.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/cvra0001.pdf
Fund for Modern Courts. (2018). Court restructuring and simplification. Retrieved from
http://moderncourts.org/programs-advocacy/court-restructuring-and-simplification/
Mikeska, J. (2018). Court consolidation. Retrieved from
http://www.ncsc.org/~/media/Files/PDF/Education%20and%20Careers/CEDP%20Papers/2000/Court%20Consolidation.ashx
Vera Institute of Justice. (2002). Effects of state victim rights legislation on local
criminal justice systems. Retrieved from https://www.vera.org/publications/effects-of-state-victim-rights-legislation-on-local-criminal-justice-systems
Zimmer, M. (2009). Overview of specialized courts. International Journal for Court
Administration (August 2009), 1-15. Retrieved from http://www.iaca.ws/files/LWB-SpecializedCourts.pdf