Regional Court Performance Standards

Performance standards exist (usually in the Rules of Procedure or case precedents) in a very limited number of areas of judiciary activities in the Caribbean. This activity will develop sets of model gender sensitive court performance standards and performance indicators through collection of empirical qualitative and quantitative evidence which measures actual performance. Evidence will be collected from court operational management information systems, customer surveys, expert assessments and direct observation.

The JURIST Project through several of its activities will develop the systems, procedures and specific model tools required to provide– on an ongoing sustainable basis– empirical estimates of actual performance relative to those standards. The models will be implemented at three levels: the regional level, the national level for core types of courts (e.g. criminal, civil, family, commercial) in at least five jurisdictions, and at the operational level within specific courts for at least five high priority areas of court operations.

The Project also intends to build on the work which has begun in the Family Court in Trinidad and Tobago to extend the standards to ensure that judiciaries have in place the key elements necessary for effective and sustainable management and continuous improvement and reform.

The general strategy of the activity will be to:

• Begin with Model Core International Regional and National Sets of Standards and Indictors.
• Customize and Implement National Standards and Indicators in at least 5 Separate Judiciaries.
• Produce Regional Level Performance Reports (ongoing).
• Develop and Implement Unit-level reports in selected judiciaries.

The approach will be to develop and secure consensus and approval of a model set of standards and indicators which will then be customized to particular model courts. Lessons-learned will be documented and used to train other courts which will be assisted in further development and implementation initiatives.