The Production of Court Services: An Analysis of Scale Effects and Other Factors

DURING the last few years the courts, both state and federal, have received an enormous amount of criticism regarding their performance, in particular, their large backlog of cases awaiting processing and the resultant delay from filing to disposition of cases. 1 In civil cases this can impose severe hardships on one of the parties. Indeed, in automobile personal injury cases this long delay has been one of the major arguments for removing such problems from the courts through the adoption of some form of no-fault insurance scheme. In criminal cases, it has been argued that the long delays "blunt the deterrent effect of the criminal law."2 Also for those who cannot make bail, the delays may impose lengthy incarceration regardless of guilt. And even if the accused is not incarcerated the long delays give those who are guilty an opportunity to continue their criminal activities. Given this acknowledged concern regarding court performance it is particularly surprising how little empirical research has been carried out relating court delay to court resources and other factors affecting court productiv-