Category: News

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.

A newly released report from National Center for State Courts, supported with funding from State Justice Institute, adds a new number of considerable interest to state courts: 277. That’s the number of provisions in the U.S. Code – the body of laws adopted by the United States Congress – that ask state courts to take specific action (or to not take actions) with respect to federal matters.

Read the full report: The-Role-of-State-Courts-in-our-Federal-System.pdf (ncsc.org).

Ten programs in eight states and Puerto Rico will receive recognition for their work in rural communities by the Rural Justice Collaborative (RJC). The programs have been nominated for their innovative practices in justice, child welfare, behavioral health and public health. The RJC showcases the strengths of rural communities and highlights cross-sector collaboration success to overcome unique challenges that impact their ability to deliver fair and equitable justice. The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) is working with Rulo Strategies on the RJC, with funding support from the State Justice Institute. The work under the RJC is supported by an advisory council composed of rural judges along with additional stakeholders in the justice, child welfare, behavioral health, and public health systems.

Innovation sites selected in February 2022 include:

• Eastern Shore Mobile Care Collaborative at Caroline County (Maryland) Health Department. This program expands access to behavioral health treatment and medication-assisted treatment for people with opioid use disorders in rural Maryland.
• For All Seasons, Inc. Serving rural counties along Maryland’s Eastern Shore, For All Seasons is a behavioral health and rape crisis center that offers therapy, psychiatry, rape crisis and mental health services to clients regardless of one’s ability to pay.
• Opioid Response as County Law Enforcement (ORACLE) initiative. This crisis-intervention and recovery response program based out of the Ulster County (NY) Sheriff’s Office provides direct assistance to people who overdose and works with public and private organizations to coordinate a wide array of services.
• Gender Violence Initiative. Serving a rural population in Puerto Rico, the Gender Violence Initiative is a court-based program that works with community partners to connect domestic and sexual violence survivors with victim services and offer a specialized gender court.
• Texoma Alliance to Stop Abuse, Inc. This rural Texas program provides batterers’ intervention and prevention classes and victims’ services including transportation, safety planning, counseling and financial assistance.
• Benevolence Farm. A trauma-informed, nonprofit social enterprise, this program provides transitional employment and housing for formerly incarcerated women in Alamance County and rural communities in North Carolina. Residents develop various life skills, including small business practices, sustainable farming, and food and product preparation.
• Journey Court is a voluntary trauma-informed drug treatment court that provides treatment and intervention services for addicted justice-involved people in Clinton County, Michigan. Participants receive case management, referrals to treatment providers or inpatient facilities, peer recovery support and relapse prevention planning.
• Rankin County Youth Court. This juvenile court provides various intervention and treatment programs for young people and their families involved in delinquency and child protection cases in Mississippi.
• Tennessee Recovery Oriented Compliance Strategy is a court diversion program operating out of Cocke, Grainger, Jefferson, and Sevier counties that serves justice-involved people who are at a lower risk for recidivism but have high behavioral health service needs due to substance use disorders and mental illness.
• Lyon County Human Services Forensic Assessment Triage Team is a jail-based community re-entry program in Nevada that provides treatment intervention and reentry facilitation for the Lyon County Jail. Participants are evaluated for mental health, substance use, basic needs, and risk of reoffending.

To read the full News Release article on NCSC’s website: Rural justice programs across country to receive recognition | NCSC.

Join us! SJI is hosting a free webinar on Federal Grant Management on February 28th, 2022 from 1:00-3:00PM EST.

The webinar will provide an overview of the federal grant system, focusing on key grant management requirements set forth in the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (the “Uniform Guidance”) codified at 2 C.F.R. Part 200 (and at 45 C.F.R. Part 75 for Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) awards).  

To register and for more information on the webinar, click here: Federal Grant Management Webinar (mailchi.mp)

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