High Performance Courts

The High Performance Court Framework suggests a series of flexible steps courts can take to integrate performance improvement into its ongoing operations. The steps include:

focusing on key administrative principles that clarify high performance, understanding how a courts managerial culture can promote common goals and collegial cooperation, developing the capacity to measure performance learning to use the results for procedural refinements and communication with a variety of stakeholders.

Taken together the steps form a functional system or quality cycle that courts can follow in enhancing the quality of the administration of justice. Read the Working Paper > The suite of NCSC tools available for courts striving to improve their performance and build capacity includes:

CourTools
CourTools is a set of ten trial court performance measures that offers court managers a balanced perspective on court operations. Published in a visual and accessible how-to format, the ten CourTools measures:

Reflect the fundamental mission and vision of the courts Focus on outcomes Are feasible, practical, and few

View CourTools >

Court culture assessment

The concept of "local legal culture" is often used but rarely explained. Brian Ostrom and colleagues have succeeded in specifying what court organizational culture is, developed a method to assess it, a typology to classify it, and a method for using it to help manage organizational change in the state courts. More on organizational management >

Workload assessment
The NCSC is the leader in workload assessment for courts and their justice system partners. The sophisticated, multimethod approach to translating caseload in to workload is a highly participatory process allowing for incorporation of effective practice that ensure efficiency and quality of justice. More on workload assessment >

Case Processing Time Standards

This database compiles state-by-state information about case processing time standards and how states monitor them.

View the standards >