Several years ago, I was interviewing court stakeholders as part of a courthouse planning study. A judge mentioned that an interesting trial was scheduled to begin in her courtroom the following morning. I told her I would return to observe it.

Courtroom utilization analysis can reveal opportunities to reduce construction costs, rightsize courtrooms, and better align courthouse space with current and future operations.

Yet the analysis often encounters resistance before the findings are even presented. That resistance is understandable....

I was recently sitting in a courthouse planning meeting reviewing demographic and economic data with county officials. The trends were interesting. Population growth was steady but not extraordinary. What caught my attention was the county's rising median household income. For a largely rural...

One of the most important questions in courthouse planning is also one of the most difficult to answer:

How many courtrooms should a courthouse contain?

It is a familiar scene in many older courthouses. Just outside a courtroom door, an attorney leans in close to a client, speaking in hushed tones while people stream past. Another attorney is doing the same thing a few feet away. Conversations overlap, and sensitive details are exchanged within...