The court backlog is clogging the system. New research finds surprising revisions

Courts around the world are struggling to keep up with growing caseloads, with individuals and businesses waiting for months and years to resolve. However, a new study in Journal Manufacturing & Service Operations Management revealed an incredibly easy way to speed up a system that doesn’t require more judges to hire.

The study shows that small but strategic changes in scheduling could reduce case delays by up to 65%. The researchers have found that by analyzing court litigation processing times and reallocating judicial time between early and later case stages, additional resources can be used to speed up solutions only three times.

This study, “Service Operations at the Time of Justice: A Data-Driven Queuing Approach,” focuses on the Supreme Court of India, one of the busiest courts in the world. The study found that by shifting more attention to the later stages of the case, courts can reduce the average resolution time to just 96 days, clear the backlog significantly, and improve efficiency.

“People assume that the only way to reduce case delays is to expand justice, but that’s not necessarily true,” says Nitin Bakshi of the University of Utah. “Our research shows that time management can significantly speed case resolutions more effectively.”

This solution is not just about relevance in India. This applies to courts of appeals worldwide, including those in the US, where judicial backlogs are growing. Courts at all levels face an increase in cases with increasing delays affecting victims, businesses and communities as a whole. Hiring more judges is not always feasible. This study suggests that efficiency can be quickly improved by adjusting the way the judicial system schedules and allocates time to cases.

“Justice works best when it’s fair and timely,” says Ramandeep Randhawa of the University of Southern California. “Our research provides practical and scalable solutions to help courts move their systems more efficiently.”

When courts are under pressure to provide justice faster without additional resources, this study offers a low-cost, impactful strategy that can be implemented immediately. “Smart scheduling is not just a theory, it’s a data-backed solution to one of the most pressing challenges in today’s judicial system,” concluded Jeunghyun Kim, the School of Business at the University of Korea.