Publications and Press

In a 1995 study of the 45 largest urban state trial courts in the country, Philadelphia’s state civil trial court was ranked as the 2nd worst jurisdiction for the length of time it took a civil case to get concluded. Philadelphia’s Court leaders transformed the culture of the Court by implementing intensive civil case management. By 2004, a National Center for State Courts (NCSC) study concluded that the Philadelphia Court’s civil case management system had resulted in “arguably the best-managed large urban civil trial court operation in the nation.” Judge Rau’s 2019 master’s thesis in judicial studies describes how the Philadelphia Court accomplished this major change, outlines the Philadelphia Court’s case management system, and identifies the factors that led to the Court’s current ability to timely and efficiently resolve civil disputes.