National Center for State Courts
Key Findings
This assessment establishes a set of workload standards that provide uniform and comparable measures of the number of judicial officers needed to provide effective case
resolution. Application of the workload standards to the 2021 calendar year filings results in the need for 11.55 additional District Court Judges in Montana, for a total of 64.8 judicial officers.
Adequate resources are essential if the Montana District Courts are to effectively manage and resolve court business without delay while also delivering quality service to the public. Meeting these challenges involves objectively assessing the number of state-level judicial officers required to handle the District Court’s caseload and whether the judicial resources are being allocated and in the correct locations.
The Montana Supreme Court and the District Court Judicial Council have relied on the
use of a weighted caseload model to establish the baseline needs for trial court judicial
resources since 2006 was, when the first weighted caseload study was conducted.
Recognizing the need to update District Court case weights, the Montana Supreme Court’s Office of the Court Administrator contracted with the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) to measure judicial workload in the Montana District Courts. The 2022 weighted caseload study provides data to update the case weights and incorporate them into the judicial weighted caseload model.