Category: News

The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) has just released a new set of resources to help courts monitor conservatorship cases. A three-part video series for court staff is now available online and provides guidance on case management, detecting red flags and ways to respond to suspected fraud or abuse.

The videos – Monitoring Conservatorship and Guardianship Cases, Red Flags in Financial Reports and Responses to Potential Fraud or Abuse – provide specific instruction on how court staff can ensure a conservator or guardian appropriately fulfills their duties through communication and effective case management. Court staff can also learn how to identify and report suspected fraud.

To ensure conservatorship cases are effectively managed, NCSC recommends that courts:  

• Make expectations clear by providing instructions and communicating deadlines to conservators.
• Adopt case management practices that can easily track pending and closed cases, along with important deadlines and missing reports.
• Proactively develop an action plan to address issues.

NCSC also released a series of videos for conservators and prospective conservators that defines the role and responsibilities of a conservator. The videos outline specific questions a conservator should ask the court when appointed and provide guidance on what to consider when making decisions on behalf of another person and the information needed to successfully complete reports.

Newly released report, Courting Judicial Excellence in Juvenile Justice: A 50-State Study, is a first of its kind analysis from the CSG Justice Center and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ), supported by the State Justice Institute, that examines how courts in all 50 states that handle juvenile delinquency cases (“juvenile courts”) are structured and operate. The purpose of this report is to draw attention to the critical role that juvenile court judges play and the need to treat the juvenile court as a specialty of practice. The report is structured around five key recommendations, including the rationale, concrete policies and practices for states to adopt, and related state best practices and innovations for jurisdictions to consider. States can use the report to identify gaps in their juvenile court policies and practices, identify best practices and innovations from other states, and advance a set of policy and practice recommendations for court improvement.  

In addition to the report, key findings displayed across all 50 states can be found at the Juvenile Justice GPS (Geography, Policy Practice & Statistics). The information provides background on and visualizations of findings related to judicial selection; judicial specialization; how cases are assigned; and judicial experience, training, and tools provided to juvenile court judges.

A new analysis by the Utah Bar Foundation (UBF), conducted with support from The Pew Charitable Trusts, uses state-collected court data on tens of thousands of credit card, medical, rent, and other debt-related cases to assess civil court processes and recommend improvements. Utah is one of the few states working to gather data on and address issues related to debt collection cases in its courts.

To read the full article: Utah Is Using Data to Drive Debt Litigation Reform | The Pew Charitable Trusts (pewtrusts.org)

The National Association of Counties (NACo) and its partners at Rulo Strategies and Praxis Consulting, has just announced the second round of participants for the Convening County, Court & Justice Leaders: A Framework for Cross-System Collaboration initiative. The initiative was launched in January 2022, with support from the State Justice Institute. It is designed to support county, court and justice leaders as they partner to establish local priorities and align resources to achieve their justice and public safety goals. Sites will receive ongoing one-on-one technical assistance, have access to a peer network and be offered the opportunity to showcase their results in a nationally disseminated toolkit.

The second round of participating sites are:

• Berrien County, Michigan
• Cambria County, Pennsylvania
• Gallatin County, Montana
• Mesa County, Colorado
• Rockdale County, Georgia

To read the full NACo article: NACo Selects Second Round of Convening County, Court and Justice Leaders Applicants

IAALS, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver, announced today that it is launching Allied Legal Professionals. With generous support from the Sturm Family Foundation, this project seeks to help standardize a new tier of legal professionals nationally—to increase the options for accessible and affordable legal help for the public.  

Up and down the income scale, the legal needs of people in this country are going unmet. The inability to afford a lawyer, among other factors, has led to ballooning rates of self-representation in our justice system, with over 70 percent of civil and family cases including a party without a lawyer. People in these situations are not only facing life-altering challenges such as child custody hearings or landlord/tenant issues alone—they also face disproportionately bad outcomes in their cases. 

Allied legal professionals hold a key to bringing more accessible and affordable legal help where it is needed most. Like data we have on nurse practitioners, research on allied legal professionals is beginning to show great potential for excellent public service. While this new tier of providers is a fairly nascent development, these programs are spreading quickly across the country. The limited research we have shows that these licensed and regulated professionals—who are not lawyers—can nevertheless represent clients as well as or better than lawyers in the limited matters they handle.

IAALS’ Allied Legal Professionals project will establish national best-practice thinking around allied legal professional programs by:

• Analyzing existing and proposed programs, the limited empirical research available, and similar experiences and programs from other countries and other professions (like nurse practitioners);
• Creating a framework for evaluating the relative advantages and challenges in the different models that exist;
• Convening diverse leaders and stakeholders to review the data and experiences, and establish recommendations and best practices; and
• Building a model for states to follow when considering and establishing allied legal professional programs in the future.

To read the full report from IAALS, please visit: IAALS Launches Allied Legal Professionals in an Effort to Increase Access to Quality Legal Services and Help Reduce Barriers to Representation | IAALS

SJI has just released the Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Request. To read more and download now:

The National Association for Presiding Judges and Court Executive Officers (NAPCO) has developed a monograph, funded by SJI, for use as a guide in structuring modern-day activities and functions for governing and leading state and local trial courts regardless of size or jurisdiction.  It outlines the basic duties each of the court’s top court leaders  – the presiding or chief judge, and the court executive officer or court administrator – are expected to perform, the competencies required to do a good job, and the relationships that they must nurture with each other and other justice system stakeholders to be successful.

Read the full article here: A Monograph: Presiding Judge and Court Executive Officer Trial Court Governance and Leadership Principles, Roles and Responsibilities – National Association for Presiding Judges and Court Executive Officers (napco4courtleaders.org)

The Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) held its final two Paths to Justice events which focused on racial justice by bringing together diverse perspectives to engage in a dialogue around inequities in the civil justice system, and how it relates to public trust and confidence. IAALS has published two issue papers highlighting outcomes and key takeaways.

Read the full article here: The Paths to Racial Justice: Our Civil System Must Acknowledge Shortcomings and Take Concrete Action | IAALS (du.edu)

This newly released report is the first national review of data that confirms what judges have anecdotally shared about remote hearings before and during the pandemic. The 12-month study analyzed both 1.25 million minutes of judicial data and focus group feedback from judges and court leaders in eight counties across Texas. The NCSC study, supported with generous funding from the State Justice Institute, found that remote proceedings take about a third longer than in-person hearings largely due to technology-related issues and lack of preparation by participants. But the study also found that remote proceedings take longer because they increase access to justice, as litigants can more easily attend and participate in hearings. To access the full report, click here.

Learn more about the findings and recommendations of this State Justice Institute funded study here.

The National Association for Court Management (NACM) Adult Guardianship Guide is an essential resource to assist courts in planning, developing, and sustaining a comprehensive court guardianship and conservatorship program. The update to the Adult Guardianship Guide emphasizes the recent recommendations from the State Justice Institute (SJI) and Borchard Foundation grant-supported Fourth National Guardianship Summit. It promotes person-centered planning and the least restrictive options necessary for persons who are unable to fully care for themselves. It identifies provisions within the Uniform Guardianship, Conservatorship, and Other Protective Arrangements Act (UGCOPAA) and highlights advancements in court programs and initiatives which enhance existing guardianship practices. The updated Adult Guardianship Guide is publicly available through NACM, and is accessible here.