Data Envelopment Analysis as an Instrument for Measuring the Efficiency of Courts

• Main Author: Wojciech Major
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wrocław University of Science and Technology 2015-01-01
• Series: Operations Research and Decisions
• Online Access: http://orduser.pwr.wroc.pl/DownloadFile.aspx?aid=1193

The paper addresses the problem of measuring the efficiency of civil jurisdiction courts. Non-parametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) has been proposed as a measurement instrument. Hearing (settling) a case within a reasonable time, as seen from the perspective of a citizen, is defined to be a positive output (result) of a court action. The production factors considered include human resources directly related to legal processes. The analysis was carried out for the 26 Cracow district courts. The goal has been assumed to be achieving the best possible outputs, without increasing resources. The results obtained prove that there exist reserves within these organizations that would allow them to shorten the queue of pending cases. The proposed method of measuring efficiency may constitute a starting point for further work on trying to create measurable standards of the functioning of the judiciary in Poland. (original abstract)