Workload in judiciary

For more than a decade, there have been signals from within the judiciary that the workload is too high. Judges argue that this puts pressure on the quality of justice. Although some things are known about the factors that contribute to workload among judges, it is not clear from existing research in what ways judges cope with a high workload. Based on empirical data, this study maps which strategies criminal judges and immigration judges use when faced with a high workload. Those strategies are placed within a broader social science theoretical framework on how people, judges in particular, deal with workload. A normative analysis of the strategies also follows from professional standards for judges, laid down in documents such as the Professional Standards for each jurisdiction and the Judges' Code of the Dutch Judicial Association. The study aims to assess the quality concerns of judges and to contribute to social science theory formation on (coping with) workload.