THE 20TH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT OF FLORIDA

Felony DCM Dramatically Increases Case Dispositions

January 2, 2008 marked the official beginning of a new system in Felony Court aimed at improving timeliness and efficiency of case processing. The creation of Felony Differentiated Case Management (DCM) was a journey that began early in 2007. Through the combined efforts of Court Administration, the Public Defender, the State Attorney, Private Bar and members of the judiciary, a system has been implemented to keep cases on track and accountable to established time frames.

The premise of DCM is that Courts have a responsibility to supervise the progress of each case from time of filing to disposition, regardless of the type of disposition. As such, when cases are filed they are assigned “tracks” based on the nature of the offense and the complexity of the case. Each track has specific timelines so that each court event is meaningful and productive. Felony Case Management allows the Circuit Judge to effectively manage cases to ensure early disposition of appropriate cases and to allow adequate time for trial preparation and individual judge management of more complex cases.

The key goals of DCM are: to increase dispositions over case filings; to improve early disposition rates (cases disposed in less than 180 days); to establish time goals that include a 20-30% reduction in the number of cases over a year old and to have 80% “on-time” case processing of new cases filed as of January 1, 2008; to establish trial certainty (set fewer cases for trial that will actually be heard the day they are scheduled); and, encourage collaboration between the stakeholders with a view towards the just and efficient disposition of criminal cases.

Since its launch there have been noticeably positive results. According to current data, dispositions have outnumbered filings for the months of December 2007, January and February 2008. Specifically, there has been a nineteen percent (19%) growth in dispositions while case filings remained constant. Also, as of February 2008 there has been a 27% increase in the number of future felony cases less than 180 days old; cases greater than 180 days have decreased by 27 % and cases greater than 365 days old have decreased by 25% as compared to pending cases in May 2007. Moreover, for the months of January and February 2008, felony Judges accepted 375 pleas at Case Management or Pretrial Conference.