For the first time since 2007, the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court processed fewer cases in 2011, according to the annual Orleans Parish Judicial Accountability Report.
The Metropolitan Crime Commission issues the report, which applies nationally recognized performance standards to measure judicial efficiency. The report evaluates each judge's docket size, percentage of dockets more than a year old and case processing time.
The 2011 report found that the court as a whole experienced an across the board decrease in efficiency.
"What we found is, for the first time since we started tracking the recovery of the criminal justice system post-Katrina in 2007, the court took a step backward in efficiency," says Rafael Goyeneche, MCC president.
At the same time, the report shows an 18 percent increase in violent felony cases being brought to the court.
In 2011, each judge's docket of open felony cases increased by an average of 31 cases. Cases open more than one year grew to account for 22 percent of dockets, and there was a 32-day increase in the median time it took to bring cases to conclusion.
"What we've seen over the last three years, there has been an 100 percent increase by police and prosecutors in bringing crimes and violence cases to Criminal District Court," according to Goyeneche. "And that three years is starting to slow down the court's ability to not only process those violent crime cases, but all of the cases there, because they have to devote an inordinate amount of time to the crimes of violence."
The report found that the least efficient judges had more than twice as many open cases, higher rates of backlog and longer case processing times.
"There are few judges that can take some lessons from some of their peers on the court and improve their efficiency that would inure to the benefit of public safety in the community and to the primary objective of administering justice in these cases," says Goyeneche.
Some judges complain the report does not take into account the extra responsibilities some of them take on each year.
To read the full report and see how each of the 12 elected judges ranked, go to http://www.metropolitancrimecommission.org/documents/2011JudicialAccountabilityReport.pdf
