Measuring efficiency in the Canadian adult criminal court system: Criminal court workload and case processing indicators

This Juristat article examines the number of initiated and completed cases, the inventory and age of open cases, completion rates, case processing times, court workload, and backlog. Special emphasis is placed on time-based indicators in relation to the presumptive ceiling established in the R. v. Jordan decision. Data are from the Integrated Criminal Court Survey Workload Time Series Database and examine the characteristics of cases in adult criminal court in Canada, including a series of new indicators. The database reorganizes the familiar Integrated Criminal Court Survey completed case construct, and instead organises charges by information to allow for the analysis of open cases in addition to completed cases.