Court pressure
Evidence
Annual reports and workload materials support the need for measurable court-process reform and better public reporting.
Dashboard 2.0
A dashboard is only useful when its numbers can be checked.
Metric definitions, source-freshness notes, method limits, and future success measures for Maine family-matters reform.
This is public education and public-record organization, not legal advice, emergency help, or private case intake.
Dashboard method
Dashboard 2.0 is a source-and-method layer, not just more charts.
The dashboard should show what Maine families are up against while staying honest about what the public record proves, what it suggests, and what it cannot prove without better reporting.
Metric freshness
Every public number needs a source, date, method, and limitation.
Download: dashboard_2_0_metrics.csv · Machine-readable: dashboard-2-0-metrics.json
| Metric | Lane | Source | Freshness target | Limitation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pending family matters | Court pressure | Maine Judicial Branch annual report | Annual | Shows pressure trend; does not identify fault in any case |
| Court capacity / workload need | Court capacity | Maine workload assessment | When study updates | Shows capacity gap; does not decide which reform fixes it |
| Regional family and eviction filings | Regional pressure | Regional court caseload reports | Annual/FY | Shows overlap of pressure; not a causation claim |
| Housing availability and strain | Family stability | MaineHousing and related public reports | Annual/periodic | Shows stability pressure; not a custody-specific conclusion |
| Official doors and forms | Access-to-help | Maine Judicial Branch, DHHS/OCFS, child support, legal aid, 211 | Monthly freshness check target | Does not replace official forms or legal help |
| Success measures | Reform accountability | Future public reporting/RFC | To be defined | A target dashboard, not yet a complete public dataset |
State pressure view
The dashboard should be readable by problem, not by bureaucracy.
Family stability
Evidence
Housing, transportation, food, childcare, and school support are practical pressure layers that can destabilize family routines.
Access to help
Evidence
Official doors and legal-aid/self-help routes exist, but public routing can still be easier and more humane.
Accountability gaps
Evidence
Some metrics need new reporting: continuances, time-to-resolution, child-time disruption, GAL capacity, and practical completion rates.
Family stability layer
Dashboard 2.0 should connect court pressure to real-world family pressure without overclaiming causation.
Housing and transportation
Use housing and transportation data as stability context, not as proof that a particular family-court outcome was caused by housing instability.
School and provider continuity
Connect the dashboard to the school/provider lane so public policy can see how court pressure can show up in attendance, appointments, transitions, and child routines.
Economic strain
Child support, childcare, food, MaineCare/AccessMaine routing, and employment pressure belong near the dashboard because family stability is practical before it is political.
Success measures
The public dashboard should say what better looks like.
- Timely first stabilizing step: how quickly families receive orientation, safety routing, service information, and next-date clarity.
- Time to durable resolution: how long contested and uncontested matters take, separated by case type and region.
- Continuance transparency: why hearings move, how often they move, and which delays are avoidable.
- Child-time disruption: whether process delay itself is contributing to preventable loss of parent-child time.
- Practical support completion: whether families reach housing, child support, legal aid, counseling, school/provider, or DHHS/OCFS doors when those are the real problem.
Data gap note: some success measures may require public-record requests, agency cooperation, or legislative reporting requirements. This page identifies the measurement need without pretending every metric already exists.
Public packets + access
The site now has reader-specific packets, structured SEO data, and stronger keyboard/mobile affordances.
Use public packets for reporters, officials, family helpers, skeptical reviewers, and public meetings. This lane also adds author/canonical metadata, JSON-LD, skip links, focus states, reduced-motion support, mobile tap-target hardening, and print-safe styles.