Differentiated Case Management (DCM)

The core of the Court’s caseflow management is the Differentiated Case Management (DCM) Plans. Differentiated Case Management is a concept designed to improve the efficiency of case processing and reduce the demand for judicial intervention at every phase of litigation. DCM achieves these goals by the early differentiation of cases entering the justice system in terms of the nature and extent of judicial/justice system resources they will require. To minimize case delay, each case is assigned to an appropriate track assignment that allows for the performance of pre-trial tasks and tracks are monitored for performance.

Specifically, the Plans aim to achieve:

• Realistic case assignment and scheduling of events, alleviating the need for excessive postponements
• Expedited case disposition
• Judicial supervision consistent with the complexity of each case
• Efficient use of judicial system resources

Currently, the Court maintains four different DCM Plans (Civil, Criminal, Family and Juvenile). Under each DCM Plan, cases are assigned to one of the tracks according to the Court’s standards and guidelines set for disposition and complexity of the case. The DCM Plans are available below:

Civil Cases: Civil DCM Plan

Criminal Cases: Criminal DCM Plan

Family (Domestic Relations) Cases: Family Division DCM Plan

Juvenile Cases: Juvenile DCM Plan

Quality Control Department

In 2001, Court Administration established the Quality Control Departmentto be in charge of one of its key functions at the Court – maintaining the integrity of the information that the Court generates and improving the quality of the data it collects. Specifically, the Department is in charge of data quality control for Civil, Criminal, Family, and Juvenile cases. One of the Department’s main responsibilities is to investigate and resolve data-related discrepancies found in these cases.

Currently, the Quality Control Department reviews over 30 different daily or weekly reports on cases that have one or more potential data issues or problems. Based on the reports, the Department determines if a given case has the problem as indicated by the report, and after detecting the problem, identifies its source(s) and reports to the responsible department(s) to correct the discrepancies. To solve these problems, the staff uses various information sources, ranging from actual case files to recorded court hearings. The Department also monitors the trend of cases with these problems and reports any unusual changes. The other major task of the Department is the auditing of closed criminal and miscellaneous petition cases. The Department verifies the information in these cases against the Court’s database for accuracy and proper closures. All these responsibilities fall upon the staff of the Department who are not only familiar with the details of case processing and legal procedures but also are conversant with data codes.

Because of its frequent contacts with various departments of the Court, the Quality Control Department also performs as an informational liaison between these various departments and the Data Processing Department that maintains the Court’s case-related data. In this capacity, the Quality Control Department also engages in continuous communications with other departments on quality control issues and, with their assistance, strives to continue improving the quality of the data at the Court.

Weekly data quality and data assurance activities performed by the Quality Control Department:

• Analyze cases without future events to determine if it is necessary for an event to be scheduled or if the case can be closed.
• Investigate the cases with hearings or trials scheduled on the dates beyond the prescribed time standards to determine reasons for the over-standard scheduling.
• Resolve conflicts or discrepancies in data entered independently by the Clerk’s Office, Assignment Office, and Courtroom Clerks; identify the source(s) of the problem, and notify appropriate department(s) for correcting discrepancies.
• Monitor and verify the status of outstanding body attachments, bench warrants, stays, stets, and bankruptcies and notify appropriate departments for proper action.
• Check the automated scheduling programs for civil and criminal cases to ensure that newly filed cases will have key events scheduled within appropriate time standards.
• Contact parties and their counsel to determine the status of an order to be submitted following a court hearing or trial.
• Monitor cases with an under advisement status and notify judges assigned to the case for guidance so appropriate action (such as submitting an order or scheduling a hearing) may be taken.
• Review cases with outstanding motions and forward them to the judges/masters, the Differentiated Case Management Special Master, the Family Division Case Managers, or the Administrative Aides for review. Quality Control does not review the content of the motions.
• Review civil cases to determine if they are in proper posture to issue the “No Answer” or “No Default” notices if an Answer or an Order of Default has not been filed with the Clerk of the Court. Motions for Default are ruled on by the Administrative Judge’s Administrative Aides.
• Review civil cases to determine if a 2-507 Notice of Contemplated Dismissal should be issued against individual parties or an entire case pursuant to Maryland Rule 2-507 in the Civil Procedures.
• Review case docket entries entered daily and verify the accuracy of the case status change when the case is closed, reopened, or inactivated.
• Review newly filed criminal cases and determine if they have been assigned to the correct case track according to the Court’s Criminal Differentiated Case Management Plan.

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