Optimizing Justice: Sustaining Confidence Over Time

October 24, 2025 by Ashlin McMaken

In the first two parts of this series, we explored how courts step toward confident justice through measurement and automation. Measurement provides the clarity for where inefficiencies hide, while automation transforms insights into tangible improvements that expand capacity.

Now we arrive at the final step of The Framework for a Confident Court: optimization.

Here, courts will assess results against desired outcomes to refine strategies and improve future decisions. Optimization is where progress becomes sustainable. It’s the stage where courts evaluate accomplishments and setbacks; it’s how courts sustain their journey to confident justice.

Courts that dedicate their workflows to this fundamental step thrive long-term. They approach justice with discipline and curiosity. They ensure that investments made today continue to deliver value and results tomorrow.

Comprehensively, the Measure-Automate-Optimize framework sets courts in motion to surface hidden inefficiencies, act with clarity and foresight, and deliver repeatable success.

From Reflection to Refinement

Optimization begins with a simple but telling question: Did the enhancements we made to our court workflow deliver the results we expected to see?

That question sparks reflection and initiates a disciplined review of outcomes. For example:

Did the workflow change reduce case backlogs or document review times?
If so, by how much?
If not, what blockers still stand in the way? What should be done differently moving forward?
How have these changes affected staff satisfaction, justice partner collaboration, and constituent experiences?

This step is about interpreting data with intention to ensure success becomes repeatable. Through these regular reviews, courts can identify new bottlenecks, measure the ripple effects of past improvements, and maintain alignment with their broader mission of confident justice.

Turning Outcomes Into Opportunities

Moving beyond simply implementing solutions, optimization empowers courts to broaden their outcomes into deeper opportunities:

Scaling Programs: Expanding successful initiatives and applying effective solutions across case types, divisions, or justice partners.
Delivering Transparency: Making investments visible and demonstrating how they translate to measurable benefits for the community.
Measuring Performance: Linking outcomes to goals and ensuring that operational gains align with the court’s mission.
Justifying Investments: Displaying evidence of value and holding vendors accountable for delivering optimal service outcomes.
Prioritizing Budgets: Directing limited resources toward high-performing programs and practicing fiscal responsibility.

This step applies measured data and automated workflows to create lasting strategies that advance the entire justice ecosystem.

Model of Success: El Paso County’s Collaborative Approach

An equally important component of optimization is that it invites all stakeholders — judges, clerks, IT staff, and department leaders — into the framework to analyze results and brainstorm candidly. This unification takes something that is traditionally technical and elevates it into a collaborative effort aimed at continually improving justice.

El Paso County, Texas, champions this form of collaboration through its “Enterprise Justice Control Board,” a cross-department group that includes representatives across the justice system. This group works together to not only assess the workflow outcomes but turn the results into opportunities by addressing future operational requirements and planning technology upgrades.

“Having these departments work together with the same vendor under the same framework of systems that talk to each other helps everyone understand each other’s business process; it’s how collaboration happens,” described Carlos Puga, IT Division Manager for El Paso County.

Embracing the Framework for a Confident Court

The Measure-Automate-Optimize framework is more than just operational guardrails or a strategy. It’s the hallmark of a more confident system.

It ensures that every workflow and every investment serves a clear purpose. As courts evolve, the confident justice framework will operationalize how leaders engineer isolated initiatives into sustainable court confidence.