Background
Caseflow management is central to the court's business. It is the management of the processes and resources necessary to move a case from the point of initiation through disposition and into post-disposition activity. It is concerned with active attention by the court to the progress of each case once it has been filed with the court. In 1991 the Michigan Supreme Court, through Administrative Order 1991-4, explicitly recognized that ". . . the management of the flow of cases is properly the responsibility of the judiciary." The court reaffirmed this commitment in 2003 and again in 2011 and 2013. Further amendments were made through Michigan Supreme Court Administrative Order 2013-12.
Method
Courts are required to report caseload data to SCAO. To calculate case age rates, the number of cases disposed within the time frame is divided by the number of cases disposed plus cases pending over the time frame.
Results
In 2018, the average Michigan trial court met nearly half (18) of the time guidelines and came within 4 percent of meeting 11 guidelines.[1] Although the majority of case age rates for the average circuit court were below the guidelines, criminal cases were nearly meeting the final guidelines since 2007 (see Table 2). Statewide, courts have met or exceeded the interim guideline for 7 years since 2006. When the state average was below the guideline, the guideline was missed by only 1-2 percent. Although the state average for case ages have been meeting or nearly meeting the interim and final guideline, the statewide average in 2018 was 5 percent below the initial guideline and has yet to meet the initial guideline since 2006 (see Table 2). However, when compared to national circuit criminal rates, Michigan courts are performing well.
The National Center for State Courts is completing a study of
Effective Criminal Case Management (ECCM) and recently gathered case age data
from across the country (Figure 1). On
average for all ECCM sites, 37 percent of circuit court felony cases were
disposed within 3 months of filing, 63 percent within 6 months, and 86 percent
within 12 months. In Michigan, the
circuit court felony case age clock starts at bindover instead of filing, which
is 28 days after filing for 70 percent of felony cases disposed by district
court. To make a fair comparison between
the national rates and Michigan rates, we credited one month to the national
averages. This would mean that the
national average court disposed of 37 percent within 2 months of bindover, 63
percent within 5 months, and 86 percent within 11 months. In Michigan, the average circuit court
disposed of 68 percent within 3 months of bindover, 86 percent within 5 months,
and 97 percent within 10 months. Even
with the adjusted national averages, circuit courts in Michigan were able to
dispose a higher percentage of criminal cases.
When asked to
explain why Michigan might have better case age rates, Brian Ostrom, NCSC
Principal Research Consultant responded, “In our national research on Effective
Criminal Case Management (ECCM), many of the timely courts have a strong focus
on performance measurement. In addition, where it seems to work the best,
there is strong statewide governance where focus and attention on timely case
processing starts at the top with the Supreme Court and/or SCAO.”[2]
By staying strong in our focus on the Performance Measurement Initiative, Michigan
courts will not only continue to perform above national averages, but improve
within our own goals and guidelines.
Marie Bowen has her Master of Education degree in Research and Measurement from The University of Toledo. Marie has nearly 10 years of data analysis experience, and has recently joined the Statistical Research team within SCAO.
[1] The
performance measures initiative focuses on 37 of the time guidelines in AO
2013-12.
[2] Brian
Ostrom, personal communication, August 29, 2019.