Reimagining Courts

A Design for the Twenty-First Century

Victor E. Flango and Thomas M. Clarke

Narrated by Mark D. Mickelson

Available from Audible

Book published by Temple University Press

In their timely and topical book, Reimagining Courts,Victor Flango and Thomas Clarke argue that courts are a victim of their own success. Disputes that once were resolved either informally in the family or within the community are now handled mainly by courts, which strains government agency resources. The authors offer provocative suggestions for a thorough overhaul of American state and local courts, one that better fits the needs of a twenty-first century legal system.

Reimagining Courts recommends a triage process based upon case characteristics, litigant goals, and resolution processes. Courts must fundamentally reorganize their business processes around the concept of the litigant as a customer. Each adjudication process that the authors propose requires a different case management process and different amounts of judicial, staff, and facility resources.

Reimagining Courts should spark much-needed debate. This book will be of significant interest to lawyers, judges, and professionals in the court system as well as to scholars in public administration and political science.

Victor E. Flango has recently retired as Executive Director, Program Resource Development at the National Center for State Courts.

Thomas M. Clarke is Vice President for Research and Technology at the National Center for State Courts.

REVIEWS:

“The idea of completely re-organizing court functions according to "whether a court is the right forum" for the matter and according to issues raised and whether they require adversarial adjudication - as opposed to current court functioning which takes all cases and organizes them by type - is groundbreaking.  The authors are obviously very well-versed in the major approaches to this problem and are in an excellent position to envision the alternatives.”

—Candice McCoy