Case Flow Management: A Format for Making Change

At the International Association for Court Administration (IACA) Conference in 2008 in Dublin Barry Mahoney, President Emeritus, Justice Management Institute did an excellent job at presenting some of the major sources of delay in case processing. He identified both case-specific and systemic factors. He also identified the goals of case flow management. I was impressed by the thoroughness and succinctness of what he was presenting. On my way back home I thought about how I might present the same information to my judges and court staff and how the information might be used to make positive changes in one of my courts. The following is a description of what took place at our one-day workshop on felony case management, and the positive results we obtained in working with judges, court staff and our justice partners. The process described below identified specific barriers to case processing and resulted in the development of workable solutions to case delay.