• DOI:10.1080/0098261X.2007.10767820
• Corpus ID: 142619752

Emergency Management in the Courts: Trends After September 11 and Hurricane Katrina

@article{Birkland2007EmergencyMI,
  title={Emergency Management in the Courts: Trends After September 11 and Hurricane Katrina},
  author={Thomas A. Birkland and Carri Schneider},
  journal={Justice System Journal},
  year={2007},
  volume={28},
  pages={20 - 35}
}

• T. Birkland, Carri Schneider
• Published 1 January 2007
• Environmental Science
• Justice System Journal

This article is an overview of trends in emergency preparedness and management in the courts, with a particular focus on trends following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. We describe the common features of disasters and of the management guidance available to courts. Of particular note is the degree to which Katrina was a catastrophic event that affected a broad geographical area, while the September 11 attacks constituted a major disaster but without the widespread damage done by a major hurricane or earthquake. While much emergency planning is based in anecdote and experience, we argue that there are important research questions contained in many plans and planning-guidance documents relating to the nature and extent of emergency planning in the courts, its variability across jurisdictions, and the extent to which other branches of government consider court security a priority. Further research in these questions would better inform efforts to plan and to encourage planning for extreme events that could affect the courts.