Judicial Admin week two: Effective Case Management: Reducing delays and clearing backlogs

About the workshop
Court registries are the engine rooms of the judicial system. Judges rely on accurate and complete case files, held securely and available to them in a timely manner. Yet all too often, these same registries are poorly equipped, inadequately staffed and subject to losses though inefficiency or even corrupt acts. These weaknesses lead directly to lengthy delays and the build-up of serious backlogs. Attempts to introduce judicial case management are frustrated and the quality of justice suffers. The good news is that rapid and sustainable improvements to case management systems can be and have been successfully introduced at low cost. This workshop will explore the approaches that have proved successful in a number of countries to build and maintain strong court case management systems.

What the workshop will cover
During the workshop you will be able to:
• Place improvements in court case management in the context of the wider initiatives to improve the delivery of justice
• Understand the underlying principles and key stages of professional court records management
• Appreciate the opportunities and challenges presented by the introduction of electronic case handling
• Recognise the value of good quality information sources for judges
• Describe approaches to delivering immediate decisions on appeal cases
• Outline the core principles of managing court information projects effectively.

How participants will benefit
By the end of the workshop, you will improve your understanding of:
• The importance of an overall modernisation strategy
• The benefits of judicial case management
• The key principles of judicial records management
• The role of e-systems in the justice sector
• Methods of ensuring consistent judicial information resources
• Information management-based approaches to enabling extempore appeal judgements
• Ways of improving paper-based and electronic court information and records management
• Approaches to managing court information projects.