MinnLawyer Blog

Should the local courts be more like NCAA football?

Ever year, the Associated Press, the BCS and something called the Coaches Poll, puts out a ranking of the best teams. The polls usually roll out a month before the season starts and are debated long after the final gun sounds on the season. The polls are based on all sorts of things: record, points for, points against, strength of schedule, fierceness of mascot, combined I.Q. of cheerleading squad, etc….

A recent editorial in the New York Times advocates for a similar ranking system to be applied to the courts to increase public awareness and encourage justice.

“That’s why America needs a “justice index” to show how the essential aspects of our local courts are working. The index, compiled according to national standards, would function roughly like college rankings, evaluating county courts on factors like cost, recidivism, crime reduction and collateral consequences, including whether people lose their jobs or homes after contact with the criminal justice system.”

The first step would be to compile relevant court data, and then a team of lawyers, judges and community members would set a standard of measures to determine which courts function better than others. And here’s where it gets confusing. According to the story, the data would be analyzed and then posted to a website for users to shuffle through, the same way people do when selecting a restaurant or a wedding photographer, I guess. Attorneys could benefit by using the rankings to familiarize themselves with other jurisdictions.

I’m all for healthy competition and I agree with the premise that the counties who run effective courts should be rewarded, this idea is rife with problems.

For one, any ranking system, like the BCS for those who follow college football, opens itself up to immediate critique from those who disagree with the methodology or weighting system. Just ask Michigan Wolverine fans if they think the Ohio State Buckeyes get ranked too high each fall.