Superior Court Statistical Reporting Manual

1. CASES FILED

A filing is the initiation of a case in court by formal submission of a document alleging the facts of a matter and requesting relief. A separate filing is reported for each petition filed (e.g., each case number assigned). Each unique probate/guardianship case number is reported as a single filing, no matter how many litigants or causes of action.

Cases Reopened - A reopened case is one which was previously completed but is reopened to supplement or change the original case resolution (e.g., vacating a judgment, remanding a decision for retrial).

A reopened case is not counted as a new filing.

A reopened case is treated like any other case when scheduling or reporting a proceeding. All probate/guardianship proceeding-held codes are available for use and are counted in their appropriate categories (e.g., non-jury trial, motion hearing).

For a reopened case the resolution and completion codes and dates should be removed and the case should proceed as if it was never resolved or completed. (Example: When there is an order vacating judgment, change the resolution and completion codes and dates to blank to reflect that the case is no longer resolved and completed.) When all issues in the reopened case are resolved, enter the appropriate resolution code and date. When the reopened (and newly resolved) case reaches completion, enter the appropriate completion code and date.

This may create a very small increase in resolutions since a few cases could have two resolutions reported in different calendar years. The reprocessing of monthly SCOMIS statistics in January for the previous year will eliminate the duplications that may have occurred during the previous calendar year.

Cause Code Migration - Cause code migration is the changing of an initial cause-of-action code once a file is opened. Among probate/guardianship causes of action, cause code migration should occur only in three specific situations.

(1) If a person for whom a guardianship (i.e., "GDN") has been established dies, and the probate will be the same case, cause code migration can be made to "G/E."

(2) If a will only ("WLL") case evolves into an estate, cause code migration can be made to "EST."

(3) If a will only (WLL) case evolves into a non-probate notice to creditors, cause code migration can be made to “NNC.”

If cause code migration occurs, (1) change the cause code, and (2) remove the case resolution and completion codes and dates if applicable.

This may create a very small increase in case resolutions since a few cases could have two resolutions reported in different calendar years. The reprocessing of monthly SCOMIS statistics in January for the previous year will eliminate the duplicated filing counts that occurred for these cases during the previous calendar year.