After years of courthouse planning, it is still painful to go into a courthouse where the operations, security, and image of the court are suffering due to the need for more space. In my experience, ten common symptoms indicate that a courthouse has inadequate space for all the court components.

When a court is short on space, alternative dispute resolution (often called ADR) can be a viable option for addressing space constraints. In this post, I will discuss a particularly effective example where ADR has been successfully used to avoid the need for expansion of courtroom space while...

Courtroom sharing is a controversial issue considered by courts all over the country. Most of the courts I work with have one courtroom per judge. However, in an effort to save space and associated costs, the possibility of courtroom sharing frequently arises during courtroom planning.

For many years, I assessed courthouses, and additional file storage has been a common need for court and related components. The introduction of electronic filing and imaging has now reduced storage in many courts, and I find more courts with reduced filing needs and even vacant file rooms. This...

Earlier this year, I toured a Midwest courthouse with a deputy from the courthouse law enforcement staff as the initial part of a needs assessment. We began by examining the secure route that deputies use to accompany prisoners from the courthouse cellblock to the courtrooms. During this part of...