The Untapped Public Wealth of Courts
Faced with shrinking budgets and revenue streams that are dry or reduced to a trickle, at the same time as citizens are demanding better public services, judiciaries must learn not only how to spend more wisely but also to manage their public assets better. Justice systems own valuable land and brick-and-mortar assets that they often do not use and do not need. As judiciaries around the world consolidate or close courts altogether to improve their supply chain management of judicial service, courthouses are not at capacity or sit empty as judges are transferred to other locations. This unused real estate represents untapped capital that justice systems should exploit. Historically, courts were located in the administrative centers of towns, cities, states and provinces. Today, they sit on valuable real estate, some of it is outrageously so (think of the center and suburbs of the developing and developed nations of the world). The physical space that courts will need to occupy ma...