COURT PERFORMANCE Why and what to follow

Why Measure Performance? Different Purposes - Different Measures Robert D. Behn Harvard University Public Administration Review • September/October 2003, Vol. 63, No. 5

Purposes I Evaluate Control Budget Motivate How well is my public agency performing? Control How can I ensure that my subordinates are doing the right thing? Budget On what programs, people, or projects should my agency spend the public's money? Motivate How can I motivate line staff, middle managers, nonprofit and for-profit collaborators, stakeholders, and citizens to do the things necessary to improve performance?

Purposes II Promote Celebrate Learn Improve How can I convince political superiors, legislators, stakeholders, journalists, and citizens that my agency is doing a good job? Celebrate What accomplishments are worthy of the important organizational ritual of celebrating success? Learn Why is what working or not working? Improve What exactly should who do differently to improve performance?

Characteristics of Performance Measures – Needs I Evaluate Outcomes, combined with inputs and with the effects of exogenous factors Control Inputs that can be regulated Budget Efficiency measures (specifically outcomes or outputs divided by inputs) Motivate Almost-real-time outputs compared with production targets

Characteristics of Performance Measures – Needs II Promote Easily understood aspects of performance about which citizens really care Celebrate Periodic and significant performance targets that, when achieved, provide people with a real sense of personal and collective accomplishment Learn Disaggregated data that can reveal deviancies from the expected Improve Inside-the-black-box relationships that connect changes in operations to changes in outputs and outcomes

Conclusion "What gets measured gets done“ If you measure it, people will do it.

CEPEJ Activities on Court Performance

Activities of CEPEJ in the field of… Evaluation of Judicial Systems Judicial time management Quality of justice Enforcement Mediation Targeted co-operation

CEPEJ – recommends especially Evaluation of Judicial Systems – Report “Time Management Checklist“ SATURN – European Uniform Guidelines for Monitoring of Judicial Timeframes (EUGMONT) GOJUST – Guidelines on Judicial Statistics

CEPEJ – recommended indicators Type of case Cases pending on 1.1.2008 New cases initiated in 2008 Resolved cases Cases pending on 31.12.2008 1 Civil cases 1a Litigious divorces 1b Dismissals

CEPEJ – recommended indicators Efficiency rate, Total backlog, Backlog resolution, Case per judge, Standard departure …

CEPEJ indicators – applied to TK I

CEPEJ indicators – applied to TK II

Comprehensive court quality models The Netherlands: measurement system court quality and RechtspraaQ Finland: Quality Benchmarks Rovaniemi Courts Ongoing work of CEPEJ-GT-QUAL 15