Stewardship in Stormy Seas

Beltway Bulletin from the Summer 2024 issue of The Federal Lawyer

Court administrators support the mission of the federal courts “to provide an independent, national judiciary providing fair and impartial justice within the jurisdiction conferred by the Constitution and Congress.”[1] Effective stewardship of limited resources—human, financial, and physical—are vital to the successful realization of that mission. Budget planning and execution are foundational elements of court administration. Some of the most visible and impactful administrative actions, such as staffing and organizational decisions, facilities improvements or repairs, and technology investments, to name a few, depend on a predictable and functional budgetary environment.

In recent years, Congress has funded the federal government through multiple temporary stopgap actions called continuing resolutions [2](CRs).   No single governmental action increases the cost of services the way successive CRs do. Operating under a CR requires departments and agencies to operate in a quasi-shutdown mode: limiting hiring; suspending long-term planning; deferring maintenance; and sometimes requiring temporary or permanent separation of staff. Receiving a full year’s funding at mid-year requires a shortened contracting schedule, limiting the options to allocate those resources and resulting in higher costs for projects.

In addition to challenges with the Judiciary budget, this uncertain fiscal environment adversely affects the General Services Administration [3](GSA), who maintains most courthouse facilities. Above and beyond the requirements to maintain general office space, courthouses have significant security requirements that add to the complexity of their maintenance. Perimeter bollards, lighting and camera systems, prisoner transport areas, cell blocks, and dedicated elevators all present distinct complications in an aging population of diverse buildings. Funding delays for these critical repairs only increase the cost of each item and in many cases create additional problems with our buildings.

Court administration is a human-intensive process. The public service duties of each court unit – the Bankruptcy Court, the District Court, and the Probation and Pretrial Services Office – require staff in the courthouse. The Bankruptcy Court and District Court have staff to accept filings at the front counter; to answer questions from litigants, the public and the bar; to coordinate with parties in preparation for court hearings; and to attend and manage court hearings. Staff are available for debtors, defendants, family members, jurors, attorneys, parties, and the public in person every day. The Probation and Pretrial Services Offices hire criminal justice professionals who play a dual law enforcement and social work role, guiding probationers to lead sober, employed, and fulfilling lives while also supervising those on pre-trial release and preparing bail or pre-sentencing reports for the court. The uncertainty of the funding timeline adversely impacts each of these court employees. In the past few years, we have lost a wealth of knowledge and experience as employees, discouraged by the unpredictability, moved on to early retirement or the private sector.

Although we have learned from the effects of the pandemic and implemented more audio and videoconferencing, most court hearings remain in person, in a courtroom. The bar, litigants, and public throughout the country deserve courtrooms that provide dignified and modernized venues, reflecting the importance of each case before the court. In addition to the general maintenance, courtrooms’ high-tech audio and video presentation systems are one of the largest expenses in the court budget. These systems require annual maintenance and upgrades to keep the thousands of courtrooms across the nation ready for hearings and trials that include increasing amounts of video and documentary evidence. Critical applications to maintain the court docket, provide public access, and administer cases timely and accurately are costly to maintain and develop. Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF), the main document management application used by the bar and court to manage cases, is antiquated. Development of replacement systems given the distributed nature of the courts is a daunting. An uncertain budget environment, and its effect on staffing and long-term planning, increase the costs of this work.

Court administrators work every day to balance the critical elements needed to fulfill the mission of the Judiciary. We must be efficient to equitably handle a large volume and variety of financial, civil, and criminal cases in courthouses large and small. We must enhance fairness and transparency by maintaining the public record and keeping our courthouses and courtrooms available to the bar and public. The current budget cycle causes costly operational issues, including: abbreviated contract periods; an inability to accurately forecast costs; contract inflation due to delay; and limited contractor options due to the abbreviated schedule. Stewardship of limited resources is a daily challenge for court administrators across the country. Our current budget process has hindered that stewardship, adding cost, delay, and uncertainty and diverting time and resources away from the Judiciary’s vital mission.

Robert Farrell is a 34-year court employee having worked in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services Office and U.S. District Court in a variety of Operations, Finance, and IT positions.   He has worked for the courts in the Southern District of Ohio, District of Maine, Northern District of New York and is presently the Clerk of Court for the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.   He is a graduate of Franklin University and the University at Albany (SUNY).

[1] https://www.uscourts.gov/statistics-reports/strategic-plan-federal-judiciary

[2] https://www.gao.gov/blog/what-continuing-resolution-and-how-does-it-impact-government-operations

[3] https://www.gsa.gov/about-us/mission-and-background/background