Survey of Metropolitan Courts: Final Report is the culmination of a twelve-year study on the function of the metropolitan trial court as a facility of the metropolitan community. It was started in 1947 when the Section of Judicial Administration of the American Bar Association initiated a research project into the special problems of metropolitan courts.
The book represents a major step toward identifying, characterizing, and classifying the special problems of metropolitan courts and analyzing the effectiveness of methods brought to bear on those problems. It contains a wealth of useful material on personnel, caseload in various courts, and relationships between courts and other law-enforcement and community welfare agencies. Its survey of past studies on the problems of metropolitan courts, tables, and appendices make it an important reference source book.

Survey of Metropolitan Courts: Final Report makes use of material from an earlier study published in 1950, also by Maxine Boord Virtue, under the auspices of the University of Michigan Law School as part of an American Bar Association project. In addition, it draws on Virtue's recent investigations of courts in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and London, as well as James C. Holbrook's study of Los Angeles courts published in 1957, and other recent research around the country.

Survey of Metropolitan Courts: Final Report is a scholarly work that is vitally concerned with the practical possibilities of improved law administration. It shows what can be done by competent leadership and cooperation in this complex field of court organization.