2013 JUDICIAL, COURT AND CASE MANAGEMENT FOR JUDGES

Overview 

Judges and other Judicial Officers face increasingly complex challenges in managing and adjudicating cases. This seminar focuses on the principles and techniques for the development and management of a modern, efficient, fair and transparent court system and judicial proceedings, from a judge’s perspective. References will be made to the experience of judges in the United States as a basis for discussion. The seminar will include presentations on the judge’s role in court and case management for the efficient adjudication of cases, as well as site visits to local federal and state courts and court support institutions. Selected sessions and site visits will be combined with the “Court and Case Administration for Court Administrators” seminar which will be conducted concurrently with this seminar.

Course Outline

Basic Concepts and Principles (presented concurrently with Court Administration Seminar)

• Overview of the United States legal system and its component state court systems
• The role of an independent judiciary in trial and appellate courts
• Court structures
• Fundamental principles of judicial management and court administration

General Issues of Judicial Management

• Securing the independence of the judiciary through administration
• Judicial leadership
• The role of the judge as manager
• Judicial integrity: ethics and codes of conduct for judges

Specific Issues of Judicial Management

• Court governance
• Budget and finance
• Judicial education
• Strategic and long-range planning

Case Management (presented concurrently with Court Administration Seminar)

• Case management principles and practices
• Evaluation of court procedures and case processing
• Developing and implementing a case management plan
• Establishing a case management system
• Technology for case management
• An efficient clerk's office: filing and other systems

Course Advisor

James G. Apple is currently President of the International Judicial Academy, a non-profit educational institution in the District of Columbia which he founded in 1999. He was formerly a senior staff officer at the Federal Judicial Center, the U.S. federal courts’ agency for education, training and research. He has conducted or co-conducted almost 100 seminars and conferences on issues of judicial and court administration and other topics related to modern court systems for judges and court and legal officers from countries around the world.