Issue: 2015/Vol.25/No.4, Pages 19-34
DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS AS AN INSTRUMENT FOR MEASURING THE EFFICIENCY OF COURTS
Wojciech Major
Cite as: W. Major. Data Envelopment Analysis as an instrument for measuring the efficiency of courts. Operations Research and Decisions 2015: 25(4), 19-34. DOI 10.5277/ord150402
Abstract
The paper addresses the problem of measuring the efficiency of civil jurisdiction courts. Nonparametric 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.
Keywords: DEA, efficiency measure, civil courts
Received: 3 June 2015 Accepted: 6 November 2015