Definition: The age of active cases pending before the court, measured as the number of days from filing until the time of measurement.
Purpose: Cases filed but not yet disposed make up an appellate court's pending caseload. A complete and accurate inventory of pending cases (e.g. the number, ages, and types of cases) provides the information an appellate court needs to access its performance processing cases within established time frames. Once the ages of active cases in various case types are determined, the court can focus its attention on what is required to ensure cases are brought to completion within reasonable time frames, and thus minimize court delay.