A court must regularly monitor whether it is keeping up with its incoming caseload. A key indicator of court performance on this issue is the disposition or clearance ratio: the number of cases that are disposed in a given year divided by the number of filings in the same year for identifiable case types. Courts should aspire to dispose at least as many cases as are filed each year (i.e., it should have a clearance ratio of 1.0 or higher). If the court is disposing of fewer cases than are filed each year, a growing backlog is inevitable. Knowledge of clearance ratios for various case categories over a period of 3 to 5 years can help to pinpoint emerging problems and where improvements must be made.

Planning/Preparation. This measure requires information on the numbers of cases filed and disposed each year. It is most valuable to courts if data are available for particular case types for at least 5 years.

Data Collection. The data required for this measure should be available from the clerk’s office or court manager’s records.

Data Analysis and Report Preparation. For each case type, divide the number of cases disposed of by the number of cases filed. The resulting ratios represent the court’s annual clearance rates for those case types. (Form 2.1.2, Ratio of Dispositions to Filings Worksheet, can be used as a guide for calculating the ratios.) Compute the same calculation for the court’s total caseload.

Display the data in a graph showing the clearance rates for both individual case types and the court’s total caseload over a 5-year period (see Form 2.1.2). If a court is keeping up with its incoming caseload, all the ratios on the graph will be close to 1.0. A court that is not keeping up with its incoming caseload will plot values less than 1.0, indicating that a backlog is developing or that an existing backlog is increasing.