Number and percentage of instances where people access court services other than in person and outside normal business hours (e.g. phone, mobile application, online, expanded hours) – Municipal Court

Status

The Austin Municipal Court offers services via in person, phone, mail, email, online, in the community, in multiple locations, and during non-traditional hours to make it easier and more convenient for individuals to handle court business. This measure tracks the percentage of customers that utilize court services outside of normal business hours, defined as 8am-5pm Monday-Friday, and how many payments were made by methods other than in person.  This measure helps determine how Court services are being used and enables the Court to allocate its resources to best meet the needs of the public. Historically, almost 30% of the operational hours are outside of traditional hours and the average percentage of payments made by mail and online has been over 59%.

Trending

Monetary payments received via mail and web have been above the target of 59% since 2018.  Pandemic related factors resulted in more individuals engaging in remote transactions rather than in-person.  As the Court returns to full in-person services, remote transactions will be evaluated to determine the appropriate target.
Note: to see the underlying data for this chart, please select the "View Source Data" link to the left.

Additional Measure Insights

The below graph reflects the number of operational hours each year which are outside of 8AM-5PM Monday-Friday divided by the total number of operational hours.  Court averages around 29% non-traditional business hours.

Measure Details and Definition

1) Definition:  This measure tracks the operational hours of the Court and the total number of monetary transactions received to assess what percentage of each are made other than in person and/or outside of traditional business hours.
2) Calculation method:The number of operational hours each year which are outside of 8AM-5PM Monday-Friday divided by the total number of operational hours.  The total number of monetary transactions divided by the total number of web and mail payments.
3) Data Collection Process:  Business hours are manually calculated annually. - A query is run from the court’s case management system to calculate how many monetary transactions were posted. Number of payments received by mail is entered manually by the Customer Service unit that processes all incoming mail. Total number of web payments is calculated using a query to calculate a total number of payments with a payment type ‘web’ in the case management system.
4) Measure Target Calculation: The target was calculated using data from the last four years, which suggested that the Court averages around 29% non-traditional business hours and 59% of payments made other than in person.
5) Frequency Measure is Reported: Annual (Fiscal Year)

Date page was last updated: April 2023