Tag: case processing

Alaska Chief Justice pledges to speed up criminal cases, use AI for estate cases

In her State of the Judiciary Speech this week, Alaska Chief Justice Susan Carney acknowledged unacceptable delays in the court system’s processing of criminal cases, and vowed to speed up processing times. A media investigation earlier in the year found that the length of time needed to try the most serious felony cases in Alaska had tripled in the past decade.

Chief Justice Carney also noted efforts to improve the civil justice system, including in areas of family law and estate administration. The court system will be employing a generative AI chatbot to help people navigate the often arcane rules of estate processing after a loved one’s death.

This seems like an excellent use of AI (assuming, as always, that it provides accurate and reliable information). It can help ordinary people understand their obligations in handling an estate at lower cost and less time. I imagine that many court systems will look to implement this type of AI technology in the near term.

Effort to speed up New Mexico criminal cases receives pushback

The chief judge of New Mexico’s First Judicial District (covering Santa Fe, Rio Arriba, and Los Alamos Counties) has proposed a case management order (CMO) aimed at speeding up the processing of criminal cases within the district. The order was intended to go into effect no later than January, but concerted pushback from attorneys and police and delaying implementation.

The need for faster case processing is evident: the average criminal case in the First Judicial District takes almost 300 days to reach a resolution, as compared to 224 days in the Second District (covering Albuquerque) and under 200 days in some rural districts. But prosecutors and defense attorneys jointly asserted that the real problem is a lack of resources, which no CMO can fix. They also complained that the proposed CMO imposed rules that were inconsistent with procedures in other parts of the state.

Both sides may be right about the challenges, but both should also continue working toward finding creative and viable solutions to reducing the average time to case resolution.