The positives and negatives of an effective case management system on the issues of cost and delay have been seen through two studies done in both America and England.
The RAND study by the Corporation’s Institution for Civil Justice, which was published in 1996, focuses on the impact of case management upon the American court systems, shows the impact that case management can have both positively and negatively. Within the study, 10 courts were required to adopt principles related to case management, while 10 others continued without these principles. The principles applied by the 10 courts included principles around differential case management, early judicial management and monitoring and control of cases. The study found …show more content…
Within Australia, both the New South Wales court and the Court of Victoria have established case management regimes. The Victoria County Court system regime more actively allowed judges to manage cases at directions hearings, with s55 of the Civil Procedure Act 2010 (Vic). The New South Wales regime, however, focuses more on being ‘rule driven’ and ‘default based’, under s57 of the Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) and the Uniform Civil Rules 2005 (UCPR). Rule 2.3 of the provision allows for courts to rely on electronic filing and allows them to offer electronic direction hearings if …show more content…
The case management system allows for judges to be given a large amount of leeway to control their cases, this can result in judges who do just produce a ‘cookie cutter’ approach.
The legal system originally started with a c common law system. This was developed as a system which allowed the parties the freedom to run their cases as they saw fit. The party had a sense of autonomy and this was an important factor of arbitration. The idea of a judge as a managerial judge is almost against the views and behaviours of the traditional common law judge. The issue that may be produced from this with a judicial case management system is that in resistance to the new system, judges make that this ‘cookie cutter’ approach.
The benefits of a case management system could be completely outweighed by the approach and attitude of the judge. It is the role of the judge that plays the most important part of whether a case management system is worthwhile.