Traits of court managers

TRAITS OF COURT MANAGERS IN CHALLENGING ENVIRONMENT

Throughout Indian history until sesquicentennial celebrations the traditional managers of court operations have been the clerks of court. As of late court managers have been appointed in all district courts. The appointment of court managers signify that court is also more than its judges and administration. It is, in a mechanical sense, a factory that produces decisions on cases with a specific procedure to come to a quality product( ie judgments). This process starts with the entrance point of presenting a plaint, to case management, hearing management and ending with the publication of judgment. Can the appointment of court managers change the courts as professional bureaucracies into professional organizations? Will the management education address the challenges presented in power dynamics at work in the court culture.

Deep down, beneath any denial, court staff members have tremendous disaffection on the appointment of court managers. The Chief Administrative officers and Sheristadar are unsure about what will happen to them if they lose the trappings of the office. Power differences may eventuate and escalate conflicts. There is a perception that there would be a war game. There are many dimensions of court management that are quite different from the management of a business, factory or a private organization. Courts differ from organizations in several ways: Court systems, had always been managed primarily by judges and court clerks. The role of court managers are diverse, but their essential responsibility is to improve the operation of courts by freeing judges from non-judicial duties and providing them with competent managerial infrastructures.

A Court Manager's role is to oversee the management and functioning of the court. This will involve court staff management, allocation of resources and budgeting to ensure the court functions as effectively as possible in their duty to serve the public. Every organization faces challenges in realizing its vision and mission. There are many challenges, however, that are specific to the court and tend to determine the court’s success, as a public institution. There is a power differential between court managers and staffs, which often results in an artificial separation between judicial and management functions. The management issues that the court faces, however, are not strictly legal and addressable through knowledge of the law. There are issues that require expertise in such areas as case flow management, information management, human resource management, and court security. Success in these areas requires a partnership between judges, Advocates, court staffs and court managers and recognition of each other’s expertise. Currently Clerks of court handle court recordkeeping, and overseer of court personnel by Sheristadar , and most other day-to-day routine matters. Judges have used their status, prestige, and power to stimulate clerks of court to be more responsive to judicial administration concerns.

The extent to which judges will be willing to delegate authority to a court manager is in a state of incertitude. The court staffs will be slow to accept the management administrators as responsible court managers, often at first causing them to assume a passive role in the court process, serving largely as glorified clerks. These appointees have not been exposed to ideas of court management in their Management education. Judicial officers and court staffs will be wary of "administration" fearing that management will impede their individual judicial independence, cause a decline in the quality of justice, and undermine fairness and due process. As a result, they would relegate court managers to a subordinate role unless they are faced with a crisis arising from serious deficiencies in court operations. A court manager's power is not as clearly delineated nor automatically bestowed. Several factors are involved. First, the extent of a court manager's position and power has to be determined by the higher judiciary secondly whether they should be under the control of District judges or under the control of high court. I perceive if District judges are refrained from exercising control over the court managers they will become boss less leaders. The court manager's roles, responsibilities, and authority depend on how highly the judges value management, and how well they understand what it takes to achieve court management excellence. The more knowledgeable and comfortable the judges are with the role of the court manager, the more power the court manager are likely to be given. Regardless of how well a court manager performs his or her duties. The positional power of the court manager is always subordinate to that of the judge.

Therefore the court managers cannot exercise considerable personal power within the court , based on their knowledge and expertise, A senior ministerial court staff, or Sheristadar with many years’ of experience may exhibit a senior mentor quality. They have experience in scheduling court assignments over large numbers of staff. The power to control has been legitimated by the office and credible experience. Many fear their institutional identity is under attack. This can be destructive and can escalate situations to conflict. The appointees(court managers) could see interdependence, innovation, challenge, and change as manifestations of the chaos that threatens and will have difficulty adapting to the court environment. Burden lies heavily on court managers job to eliminate all remnants of chaos . The complicated nature and dynamics of the courts and the temptation of individuals in the courts to use power inappropriately or ineffectively coalesce in such a way that task of court managers will be a constant challenge. Court Management competencies at this level require expert skill in introducing, implementing, and monitoring the initiatives and services of the courts. Successful court managers must be able to do all of this in the framework of the courts visions and strategic action steps established by the Judges.

They must keep the court staffs engaged, motivated, and committed to the work that must be done and to the visions upon which the work is based. Good court managers should network with Advocates because often the work is interrelated. Thus, how court managers conduct themselves is especially important to the internal operations of the courts because they work with officers of court who interact directly with the public, so their actions can affect the public's perception of the courts. Therefore they should have the conviction and courage to fight obstacles and work with single minded dedication towards the goal. The court- house is a highly constrained environment for a court manager. Judges are unquestionably the key ï¬gures within courts, and their level of receptivity to court managers spell success and failure .Unless the role of court manager is acknowledged in enhancing judicial operations, the court Managers job can be terribly frustrating.

Civil judges and magistrates use their own criteria to monitor, evaluate, and motivate courtroom and other staff. They had wide discretion in how they manage, and organize their courtroom sup-port staff. Now judges will have to maintain psychological distance between them and court managers . Will the magistrates and civil judges encourage court managers to monitor court performance and to recommend necessary adjustments? To achieve this goal court managers should seek to build confidence among all judges and court staff members and attempt to help all to obtain satisfaction from work. At times they may find their attempt in achieving their objective being thwarted and typically face moral dilemmas in their decision and action.

Hierarchy and formal processes do exist, but court managers have to go outside normal channels when it seems appropriate to "do the right thing".There may be ego clashes, there may be rivalry, there may be certain amount of jostling for position. It must be kept in mind that few might appear to be Quixotic and ill adjusted so court managers need to over come these road blocks ,irritants and frustrations. Will the management education address the challenges presented by the power dynamics in the court culture? I am afraid that degree in business administration, might not be enough for appointment as court managers. I confess that I have no specialization or expertise on the subject, these are the ideas on the basis of which experts may pool their heads together to find out the solution of the problem. Whatever I have said above is only a small fragment of huge problem. I am confident that we can all pull together and support this new mental health court concept.

I suggest that right now the premier institutions in collaboration with judiciary and legal fraternity should train the appointees on Court Management which should educate them on principles and practices of caseload management. Ability to plan and supervise the work of subordinates - to maintain effective working relationships with Judges, court officials, Advocates , court employees and the general public-to resolve case flow issues- to use automated case management systems for input, retrieval and tracking etc . I suggest that right now the premier institutions should begin a course of Court Management.

Since court management is an inter-connected research field my suggestions are aimed to invite attention of the concerned people viz political scientists, legal academics, economists, management experts, sociologists, judges and practitioners to think over the subject on the lines suggested above along with other ideas to hold a practical forum to debate this change and to find new balances within the constitutional, political, managerial, social and economic framework and to decide on a direction in which to go. Judges ,Advocates and court staffs should be encouraged to monitor court managers performance and to recommend necessary adjustments. Today, the need for effective court managers is greater than ever. It is time for the judicial system to renew and institutionalize its partnership with academia in order to create the next generation of court managers.

BY: K.SURESH BABU ADVOCATE TRICHY 

ADVOCATE 9,RAJA COLONY,

SECOND MAIN ROAD, 

COLLECTORS OFFICE ROAD,CANTONMENT,

TRICHY-620001

Email : lawyersureshbabu@gmail.com