Superior Court Statistical Reporting Manual

8. CASES COMPLETED

Case processing time standards are being published in the Washington Rules of Court. The time standards identify three major milestones in the life of a case: filing, resolution, and completion. Case "resolution" occurs when the case is "tried, settled, or otherwise concluded;" that is, for mental illness/alcohol treatment case resolution is defined as the adjudication (court decision) of the first commitment petition filed in the case. This does not include the initial petition of detention.

Case "completion" occurs when all necessary dismissal, change of venue, or discharge documents have been filed with the clerk.

A case must be resolved before it can be completed. In certain situations, resolution and completion can occur simultaneously (e.g., order of dismissal). The case resolution date must be on the same day or prior to the case completion date entered on the SCOMIS basic screen.

The following are examples of completion for the outcomes from mental illness/alcohol treatment judicial orders or notices.

Judicial Orders or Notices

Order of Dismissal
Change of Venue
Order of Closure
Notice of Discharge

CASE COMPLETION CATEGORIES - Case completions are categorized into three statistical reporting categories, and are recorded on the SCOMIS basic screen. Documenting case completion entails recording the type of case completion and the date it occurred. Following are the definitions for case completion categories.

8.A. JUDGMENT/ORDER/DECREE FILED (JODF)

Case completion due to the filing of final dispositive documents by parties or their representatives that require a judicial signature (e.g., change of venue, order of dismissal).

8.B. UNCONTESTED COMPLETION (UNCL)

Case completion for uncontested matters prior to involuntary commitment which do not involve a judicial signature. (Use for cases where the commitment has expired or the patient has been discharged prior to hearing.)

8.C. CASE DISMISSED/CLOSED ON MOTION OF CLERK DUE TO LITIGANT INACTIVITY (CDCM)

Case completion due to the filing of an order of dismissal/closure on clerk's motion.

*Statistical Completion (STCL) - The statistical completion code should only be used for a previously resolved and completed pre-SCOMIS case that is added to the system to file a document or record a proceeding held. "STCL" resolutions and completions are not counted in the caseload statistics.

As an alternative to the "STCL" completion code, the appropriate resolution and completion codes can be used so that the legal record more accurately reflects the case outcome (see Historical Resolution and Completion Codes in Appendix E). If this method is used, it is important to enter the correct resolution and completion dates so that these events are not (re)counted in the caseload statistics and do not distort pending caseload reports.