Author: Lauren Curtis

IAALS, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver, announced the release of its new report, Allied Legal Professionals: A National Framework for Program Growth. As part of IAALS’ Allied Legal Professionals project—which is generously supported by the Sturm Family Foundation—this report includes multiple research-informed recommendations to help standardize a new tier of legal professionals across states, with the goal of increasing the options for accessible and affordable legal help for the public.

“To hire a lawyer, people either need considerable money or have an income low enough to qualify for the limited legal aid available. The problem is that the majority of people in the middle class don’t fit into either of those categories, making access to legal services incredibly difficult,” says IAALS Director of Special Projects Michael Houlberg. “Even if every lawyer took on pro bono clients, it wouldn’t come close to addressing the need. And IAALS’ research shows that people who need legal help are open to receiving it from qualified and authorized providers who are not lawyers.”

In early 2022, IAALS launched the Allied Legal Professionals project in response to an increase in state programs creating a new tier of legal service providers who target this gap in legal services—mirroring in many ways how nurse practitioners joined the medical field alongside doctors. These new providers—which collectively IAALS has referred to as allied legal professionals (ALPs)—are being authorized to provide legal advice in certain case types and under certain circumstances. Data from these programs show that ALPs are making a positive impact in people’s lives. Well-trained ALPs are competent, their clients are satisfied with their work product, and they can reach a portion of the population that lawyers are not reaching. ALPs are providing high-quality legal services at around half the cost of lawyers.

The report includes:

• A look at the broader ecosystem of legal service providers, of which ALPs are a part.
• Different stakeholders that have essential voices in creating effective ALP programs.
• High-level and on-the-ground recommendations on the various components of state ALP programs.

Access the report here: alp_national_framework.pdf (du.edu)

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Children’s Bureau, on average over 400,000 abused and neglected children live in foster care in the U.S. and foster care systems serve over 600,000 children and youth every year.[1]  According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, in 2020, 34% of child maltreatment victims were under age 3, more than half were female (51%), 44% were white, and the majority (61%) experienced neglect, and American Indian/Alaskan Natives, Black, multiple race, Pacific Islander, and Hispanic youth were more likely to be victimized than white youth.[2]  State courts play a pivotal role in the lives of these children and families.  Every day judges are faced with difficult decisions affecting children and youth with foster care system involvement, continually challenged to find the right solutions in each of their cases. 

Through a special Request for Applications (RFA) process earlier in FY 2023, SJI awarded grants to further improve state court efforts in addressing child abuse and neglect.  Over $1.3 million in grant application were received in response to this RFA.  SJI awarded a total of five grants:

• ○ The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) to: 1) standardize three existing dependency court evaluation research databases; 2) analyze variables with strong relationships to improved outcomes, such as the time required to reach final permanency; and 3) translate these findings into model case management reports.

• ○ The University of Texas at Arlington School of Social Work to further develop and refine a multilevel Family Recovery Court that promotes recovery, reunification, and well-being among families with substance use disorder in child welfare. Using a three-pronged approach and community partnership, the FRC’s principles include: 1) keeping families together; 2) ensuring child safety, permanency, and well-being; and 3) advancing the development of adequate resources.
• ○ The Fifth Judicial District Court of Pennsylvania to develop an implementation plan to establish a multi-disciplinary legal representation office for indigent parents involved in the dependency system who, because of a conflict of interest, cannot be represented by the primary multidisciplinary legal office that handles such matters.

• ○ The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) to develop a supplemental guide that provides courts with virtual hearing guidance specifically related to child welfare proceedings. This supplemental guide will provide policy, practice, and technological recommendations to help courts ensure that virtual dependency proceedings are fair, accessible, and adhere to best practices.  The project will build on the NCSC’s Remote Proceedings Toolkit.

• ○ The National Association of Women Judges to partner with the NCJFCJ to develop special podcasts for judges on the best practices in handling child abuse and neglect cases.

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[1] Children’s Bureau Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) Report #9.Online. Available:  https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/cb/afcarsreport28.pdf.  Released on November 1, 2022.

[2] OJJDP Statistical Briefing Book. Online. Available: https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/victims/qa02107.asp?qaDate=2020. Released on April 18, 2022

SJI received 16 grant applications requesting a total of $2,321,097 for the 3rd quarter of FY 2023. The Board met on June 5, 2023, at the Wyoming Supreme Court to make decisions on those applications.

During its meeting, the Board awarded 6 Strategic Initiatives Grants: the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) to develop guidelines for the ethnical and evidence-based use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies in the state courts, and an AI impact assessment tool; the NCSC to develop, pilot, and disseminate a new strategic planning framework and interactive web application tool that courts can use to address key areas of vulnerability; the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) for Phase II of an Initiative to continue to assist state court judges understand and address the needs of military families in the juvenile and family court system; the Robert F. Kennedy National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice to conduct a Probation and Youth Justice System Review Project in three selected jurisdictions and implement the recommendations from the analysis and review; the NCSC, in coordination with the Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators for Phase II of the Blueprint for Racial Justice Initiative; and the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) to partner with NCJFCJ to produce podcasts for judges on best practices in child abuse and neglect cases. 

Nine (9) Technical Assistance Grant applications were awarded: the Hamilton County, Tennessee, Court to partner with the Judicial Innovation Fellowship (JIF) program at the Institute of Technology, Law, and Policy at Georgetown University Law Center to audit and improve how the court and information technology departments across the county share data to better understand court user experiences across the civil and criminal justice systems; the Kansas Judiciary to partner with the JIF program to assess the filing needs of self-represented litigants in Kansas; the NCSC, in collaboration with the CCJ/COSCA Midwest Region, to focus on the issue of “legal deserts” in states where there are areas with few or no lawyers; the Ventura County, California, Superior Court to support a new strategic planning process; the 16^th Judicial Circuit of Michigan to develop and strategic plan and priorities for improving access to justice; the Maine Administrative Office of the Courts to assess the organization and operations of the AOC; the Oregon Judicial Department to create a four-year strategic plan; the Kansas Supreme Court to review and update the vision, mission, and strategic goals set forth in the strategic plan; and the Delaware Court of Common Pleas for a caseflow management project.

One (1) Curriculum Adaptation and Training Grant to the National Association of State Judicial Educators (NASJE) to support educational sessions during the 2023 NASJE annual meeting.

While courts are making strides to effectively respond to the needs of court-involved individuals with serious mental illness, it’s also important to focus on the well-being of judges and staff.

Mindfulness can help.

“Building a mindfulness capacity is one strategy many in the public and private sectors are embracing to build thoughtful, creative, and resilient workforces ready to respond to ongoing demands,” said Pam Casey, project director and NCSC Vice President for Research. “Mindfulness involves paying attention in an open and curious way to the experiences of the present moment.”

Last year, NCSC offered an eight-week mindfulness education program to help promote well-being and resilience for judges, court professionals, and others who work with courts. Participants were given access to a free, app-based mindfulness program and invited to 30-minute weekly webinars with a mindfulness instructor. The study, which was funded by the State Justice Institute, found that a hybrid mobile app/webinar program can be an effective way to deliver training to a broader court community but warrants additional research.

Read more at: Mindfulness | NCSC

New Resource! The Robert F. Kennedy National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice (RFKNRCJJ)’s Probation and Youth Justice System Review Guidebook. We are pleased to announce the release of the new Probation and Youth Justice System Review (System Review) Guidebook, developed for probation departments, courts, and youth justice systems seeking to improve outcomes for the young people they serve, thereby achieving shared goals for reducing risk for future delinquent behavior, holding youth accountable, supporting sustainable positive behavior change, and improving community safety.

This new resource builds upon the RFK National Resource Center’s seminal System Review framework used in partnership with 32 state and local jurisdictions throughout the country to achieve substantial improvements in youth outcomes and system performance. The System Review Guidebook aligns with the most up-to-date and relevant research on adolescent development, risk-needs-responsivity approaches, comprehensive behavioral health screening and assessment (including trauma), graduated responses, family engagement, implementation and change management science, and data-driven management and reporting. It also features current jurisdictional examples to illustrate different aspects of the System Review process, as well as on-the-ground perspectives from jurisdictional leaders who can provide firsthand insight on the challenges and successes experienced within their respective communities.

Access here: Probation and Youth Justice System Reform | Robert F. Kennedy National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice (rfknrcjj.org)

More than two-dozen state court leaders and academics met Tuesday in Arlington, Virginia, to celebrate—and put the final exclamation point on—the work of the Community Engagement in the State Courts Initiative.

First launched as a response to the U.S. Department of Justice investigation of Ferguson, Missouri, the goal of the project has been to get “proximate” to socioeconomically disadvantaged, underserved communities, in order to help advance understanding of how courts can best engage these communities to address structural, institutional, and other problems which undermine trust and confidence in the courts.

“The twin pandemics of COVID-19 and renewed racial unrest around the world made these community engagement projects all the more important,” said Chief Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, who served as one of the chairs of the effort, and who currently serves as co-chair of CCJ-COSCA’s Public Engagement, Trust and Confidence committee.

Participants reflected on the long arc of the project, which included a multi-city, PBS-broadcast “Listening Tour” in 2017, but more recently, pilot projects across six jurisdictions, each of which tried a slightly different approach to engaging with their communities. Reports from the six pilot jurisdictions, as well as an online “how to” community engagement toolkit, are available on the NCSC website.

Funding for the multi-year effort came from NCSC, the State Justice Institute, the California Endowment, and the Public Welfare Foundation.