Court Administration: Housekeeping for the Judiciary

Abstract

There is a growing popular and professional in terest in court administration which has resulted in the estab lishment in some twenty-five American judicial systems of governmental agencies or officers concerned with the mechanics of running the courts. This is a hopeful sign, because though it will not be a panacea for congestion or delay in the courts, it will greatly help the courts to make their proceedings, facili ties, personnel, and financing more efficient, and better enable them to meet the demands of the complex and voluminous litigation of modern society. The administrative machinery considered best for adoption in most states and which has been the pattern in those jurisdictions that have been most effective in this field is the Model Act of 1948, proposed by the Com missioners of Uniform State Laws. It is basically similar to the New Jersey law adopted as part of its constitutional reform of 1947, and provides for a centralized administrative control of all state courts and judges by the chief justice under su preme court rules of administration and with assistance from an administrative director and his staff acting under the direc tion of the chief justice.