Updates On Efforts To Assist The State Courts With Budget Issues

In FY 2009, SJI awarded a Strategic Initiatives Grant (SIG) to the National Center for State Courts (NSCS) to provide direct technical assistance to state courts facing severe budget shortfalls. The current and projected fiscal conditions for state and local governments are extremely dire; having a significant negative impact on the state courts. SJI has already received grant requests to assist state courts in these difficult times. For example, in FY 2009, SJI awarded a grant to the Vermont Supreme Court to re-engineer the court system as a result of budget shortfalls in that state. This SIG project is providing the technical assistance needed to assist the state courts in adapting to budget cuts, while maintaining service delivery and access to justice. The assistance includes: documenting and analyzing the experiences at selected sites for general guidance for courts; and assistance to the sites in defining and prioritizing their options, and re-engineering processes.

NSCS is currently working in Vermont, Oregon, Minnesota, and Utah. As an example, NCSC has assisted the Salem, Oregon, Municipal Court on their Collections Improvement project. The Court and the City of Salem have worked collaboratively to document current collections processes and procedures in both the Court and City offices; document collections rates and receivables based on available information; and develop processes and procedures that improve collections. NCSC is also monitoring several states (where it is not working) who are responding to the fiscal crisis with innovative solutions.

Also as part of the SIG re-engineering project, NCSC conducted a budget survey of the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA). The results of this survey, and information on the ongoing work in the state courts, are available on NCSC’s Budget Resource Center website. The website includes an interactive map of state activities that provides information on what the state courts are doing to address the fiscal crisis.