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Court Staffing and Funding

Report
National Public Defense Workload Study
When public defenders have excessive workloads, they are forced to prioritize some cases over others. This inevitably causes harm. How might caseload limits help these lawyers better serve their clients—and help the justice system better serve all those who rely on it?
Jul 27, 2023
Blog
Taiwan, Gun Violence, Fishing in the Arctic: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on the potential for a Chinese attack on Taiwan, America's persistent gun violence problem, managing Arctic fisheries, and more.
Jul 7, 2023
Research Brief
The Impact of Defense Counsel at Bail Hearings
Roughly half of U.S. counties do not provide defense counsel at bail hearings. An experiment shows that providing counsel can decrease the use of monetary bail and pretrial detention. But having a public defender at the bail hearing did result in a short-term increase in rearrests on theft charges.
Jun 30, 2023
Journal Article
The Impact of Defense Counsel at Bail Hearings
Roughly half of U.S. counties do not provide defense counsel at bail hearings, and few studies have documented the potential impacts of legal representation at this stage.
May 11, 2023
News Release
Providing Legal Counsel at Initial Bail Hearings Reduces Use of Cash Bail, Lowers Incarceration
Providing defendants with legal counsel during their initial bail hearing decreases use of monetary bail and pretrial detention, without increasing the likelihood that defendants fail to appear at the subsequent preliminary hearing.
May 5, 2023
Tool
Empowerment-Based Domestic Violence Programming Within a Family Court Setting: An Implementation Guide
This guide supports the implementation of an empowerment-based domestic violence program within a family court setting. It was developed to share the best practices learned during an evaluation of the Safe Horizon Family Court organization.
Jan 6, 2022
Infographic
Empowering Domestic Violence Survivors Within the Family Courts
This infographic accompanies a tool that supports the implementation of an empowerment-based domestic violence program within a family court setting.
Jan 6, 2022
Report
Prosecutor Priorities, Challenges, and Solutions
What are the most pressing challenges that prosecutors face today? What solutions could help mitigate some of these challenges? An expert panel identified priority needs and solutions for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the prosecutorial component of the criminal justice system.
Apr 18, 2019
Report
Discount Justice: State Court Belt-Tightening in an Era of Fiscal Austerity
Following the 2008 financial crisis, fiscal pressure on the states has led to corresponding pressure for court system retrenchment. In January 2015, the UCLA–RAND Center for Law and Public Policy held a conference to examine the depth of the resourcing problem and identify policy options and practical steps to mitigate the challenges.
May 26, 2017
Commentary
Discount Justice: Fiscal Austerity and State Courts
Budget cuts at the state court level can mean courthouse closures, hiring freezes and layoffs, leading to longer wait times for the public. Educating the public about the role and importance of the state courts is key to preventing more budget cuts in the future.
Apr 18, 2017
Tool
Courts Innovation Needs Tool
Using information drawn from the report findings, this interactive tool for ranking court innovation needs allows users to re-prioritize the needs, based on their own views of the importance of different court system policy goals.
Jul 22, 2016
Report
Fostering Innovation in the U.S. Court System
The court system needs to adapt to today's challenges and respond to new opportunities. Identifying high-priority needs provides a menu of innovation options for addressing key problems or capitalizing on emerging opportunities.
May 10, 2016
Journal Article
Fixing Judicial Recusals
If judges or justices own stock in the company of a litigant, they must recuse themselves from hearing the case.
Mar 16, 2016
Report
Digital Evidence and the U.S. Criminal Justice System
There are significant challenges to successfully using digital evidence in criminal prosecutions. Through structured interaction with police digital forensic experts, prosecuting attorneys, a privacy advocate, and industry representatives, researchers identified and prioritized specific needs to improve utilization of digital evidence in criminal justice.
Apr 20, 2015
Tool
Interactive Tool for Ranking Digital Evidence Needs
This tool presents the prioritized needs related to digital evidence collection, management, analysis, and use and allows the user to see how their priorities would change when the importance of different digital evidence objectives are changed.
Apr 20, 2015
Report
Who Pays for Justice? Perspectives on State Court System Financing and Governance
RAND Corporation researchers surveyed experts from five states that use a variety of approaches to funding state court systems to assess financing, accounting, and governance issues under various systems.
Apr 30, 2014
Report
An Assessment of Program Sustainability in Three Bureau of Justice Assistance Criminal Justice Domains
Some Bureau of Justice Assistance programs sustain operations or funding after initial funding ends. This report outlines strategies for helping programs sustain themselves and recommends a plan for ongoing measurement of sustainability.
Apr 21, 2014
Journal Article
How Much Should Judges Be Paid? An Empirical Study on the Effect of Judicial Pay on the State Bench
Judicial salaries have a small but significant effect on the likelihood of exit and thus the length of judicial tenure, and a small effect on the background of judges that join the appellate bench.
May 1, 2012
Report
How Did the Financial Crisis Affect the U.S. Civil Justice System?
A preliminary assessment of the impact of the financial crisis on the civil justice system finds that litigation demands on some parts of the system have increased, that funding for state courts may be trending downward, and that there have been disruptions in the legal services economy, in the provision of legal aid, and in the operation and staffing of courts.
Mar 5, 2012
Report
Case Weights for Federal Defender Organizations
This report presents a system of case weights for estimating the funding and staffing requirements of federal defender organizations, discusses factors that might influence defender time expenditures, and describes how such weights should be used.
Aug 18, 2011

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