Court Leader's Advantage

July 15th, 2025, Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast EpisodeOne of the major challenges facing state trial courts today is the disturbing lack of accurate national statistical data. Beneath the surface of our justice system lies a troubling truth: we often don’t know, we can’t know, what’s really happening.How many cases do our courts handle? What kinds? How efficiently? Without reliable data, we are left to make educated guesses in the dark. This absence of clarity is not accidental, it is the result of a decentralized system ofjustice.Some of the results include:Lack of Uniform Court CodingWhat one court calls a “hearing,” another might call a “conference.” These differences seem small, but they add up to a patchwork of mismatched codes, formats, and definitions across jurisdictions.Limited Data Transparency and Public AccessEven when data exists, it is often locked behind arcane systems, hard to find, and harder to interpret.Hurdles with Data SharingDisconnected technologies, legacy systems, and inconsistent