Upcoming Webinar! Hosted by SAMHSA’s GAINS Center on Monday, November 21st, 2022, from 2:30-4:00PM EST. Black Robes and White Coats: Using Project ECHO to Increase Judiciary Knowledge about Substance Use Disorder. High rates of substance use and overdoses among people interfacing with the criminal justice system have highlighted a need for judges to be more informed and aware of substance use disorders and optimal treatment approaches. Register here.
IAALS, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver, released Unbundled Legal Services in the New Normal—a new report highlighting key takeaways from the national 2021 conference—in partnership with The Chicago Bar Foundation, the ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services, and the Self-Represented Litigation Network. Accompanying the release is the launch of an unbundling resource center on IAALS’ website, which will help various stakeholders like consumers, lawyers, and courts get how-to information on promoting and utilizing unbundled legal services.
Unbundled legal services, or limited-scope representation, is one way that people who are unable to afford a lawyer—and would end up representing themselves in court—can still receive legal assistance in their case. While typically lawyers handle all aspects of a case from beginning to end, a lawyer providing unbundled legal services works on and charges for only certain legal tasks within the broader case, often based on what their clients can afford and need help with most. Unbundled legal services are becoming a more popular and less expensive way to help people get legal assistance, which usually leads to better legal outcomes than forgoing legal assistance altogether.
The three-day event highlighted that while there is increased use of technology and scalable unbundled services in this “new normal”—which makes starting an unbundled practice easier—important startup and ethical considerations remain for practitioners in this space, in addition to needed increased support by courts. The conference created a forum where an array of stakeholders shared their perspectives, gained better insights into collaborative roles, and learned about best practices to advocate for this service delivery model.
To read the full report, visit: IAALS Launches New Report and Online Resource Center for Unbundled Legal Services, Offering New Tools that Lead to Access to Justice | IAALS (du.edu)
The National Association for Court Management (NACM) Summer 2022 edition of the Court Manager magazine is now available.
This edition features all things Annual Conference – a recap of sessions, social events, awards, CORE® sessions and the CORE® Champion Program, and a testimonial of the conference scholarship benefits. In addition, regular columns on Courtside Conversations, Management Musings, and a Question of Ethics.
Read more here
Learn guidelines and steps courts can take to combat disinformation – before an incident develops – in this second installment in our disinformation series. We’ll discuss the work of Arizona’s Task Force on Countering Disinformation and a recently adopted resolution from the Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators. We’ll also hear from an industry expert with deep knowledge of national security and disinformation and learn about NCSC’s “Combating Disinformation” playbook for courts.
Thursday, October 6th 3:00 PM ET.
Register here
Thursday, September 29th. 4:00-5:00 PM ET.
During this webinar, hear experts discuss why appearance rates matter, low-cost interventions courts can implement to improve appearance rates, and what broad-scale reform to improve court appearance rates can look like. NCSC will also convene interested judges, court administrators, and practitioners from around the country to share their experiences and brainstorm new ways to help court users overcome barriers to accessing court.
Register here
NIWAP Upcoming Webinars
Naturalization of VAWA, SIJS, U, and T Visa Recipient Survivors: TTA from USCIS and NIWAP
Friday, September 23, 2022, 12:00-1:30 pm EST
Description
This webinar will provide participants with an overview of the naturalization process of VAWA, SIJS, U, and T visa recipients. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will discuss their work to remove barriers to citizenship and promote naturalization under Executive Order 14012 and the Interagency Strategy for Promoting Naturalization, as well as review the naturalization application process and address the particular circumstances, needs, and concerns of lawful permanent residents who were VAWA self-petitioners, T and U visa holders, and Special Immigrant Juveniles.
Information regarding the training and technical assistance NIWAP can provide on immigrant survivors’ naturalization, and other Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) immigration matters will also be shared during the webinar.
Faculty
Target Audience
This FREE webinar is designed for victim advocates, attorneys, and law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, OVW grantees, other victim service providers who would like up-to-date information on how NIWAP can support their work, as well as how to aid noncitizen survivors in attaining naturalization.
Tuesday, October 4, 2022, 3:00-4:00 PM EST
Description
In 2022, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services issued new Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) regulations and policy guidance (March 2022) and an updated SIJS policy manual (May 2022). In August 2022 the California Supreme Court issued a ruling In Re Guardianship of Saul H. that provides helpful direction to state courts issuing SIJS predicate orders.
This webinar will provide updates, answer questions, and describe the impact of these new regulations, policies, and court rulings for state juvenile and family court judges issuing predicate orders that SIJS eligible children need to file for SIJS immigration relief.
Faculty will provide practice tips for judges and lawyers in addition to discussing best practices for drafting state court orders. Faculty will also describe the impact these new policies and rulings have for state court practice in SIJ S cases and how these policies benefit the vulnerable immigrant children seeking help from state courts and through SIJS immigration protections.
Faculty
Target Audience
This webinar is designed for state court judges and the attorneys who represent immigrant children seeking SIJS orders from state family and juvenile courts.
Friday, October 14, 2022, 1:00-2:30 pm EST
Description
Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) confidentiality offers federal immigration law protections enacted to prevent perpetrators from learning about, interfering with, and obtaining information contained in survivors’ victim-based applications for immigration relief (VAWA, Battered Spouse Waiver, U and T visa cases). The faculty (judge, former prosecutor, family lawyer) will discuss how courts, prosecutors and attorneys should respond when offenders seek discovery of VAWA confidentiality protected information in criminal, family, and civil court cases. Best practices for anticipating, preparing for, and addressing VAWA confidentiality discovery issues in a manner that promotes and protects victim safety and offender accountability will be highlighted. Attendees will receive up-to-date VAWA confidentiality case law; DHS policies, and practice pointers.
Faculty
Target Audience
This webinar is designed for judges, prosecutors, victims’ family and civil lawyers, victim advocates, and OVW grantees.
This webinar will review key considerations identified through NCSC’s critical conversations with court stakeholders across the country related to portals and e-filing systems for domestic violence cases, such as addressing safety and confidentiality/privacy concerns, challenges to accessibility, support strategies to help petitioners navigate technology, and court processes and collaborations necessary to build a robust framework.
1:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, September 27
As a result of this program, participants will be better able to:
Register here
Disinformation and misinformation campaigns undermine public confidence in our country’s institutions, including courts. These campaigns can cause a crisis of confidence that can affect the ability of courts to do their duty and potentially harm the people who depend on court services. We will kick off a two-part webinar series by exploring “Today’s Disinformation Threats.” Featuring nationally recognized subject-matter experts, this webinar will highlight the current disinformation landscape, forecast disinformation trends on the horizon, and detail why courts should be concerned.
3 p.m. ET on Thursday, September 22
Moderator:
• Anna Blackburne-Rigsby | Chief Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals
Panelists:
• Jennifer Rubin | Opinion Columnist Covering Policy and Politics, Washington Post
• Suzanne Spaulding | Senior Adviser for Homeland Security and Director of the Defending Democratic Institutions Project, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Register here
The U.S. Department of Justice, Elder Justice Initiative (EJI) has announced a new suite of resources addressing issues involving diminished decision-making capacity and its impact on elder justice. These resources have a particular focus on elder justice cases that reach civil and criminal courts, but they are useful for all elder justice professionals and extend beyond the court setting.
In April, the EJI convened a ground-breaking virtual symposium on decision-making capacity, attended by over 1500 individuals from across the country. Over the course of three afternoons, national experts provided discussion and analysis on a broad spectrum of topics, including: 1) ten key facts about diminished decision-making capacity; 2) the latest research on the aging brain and how it impacts decision-making capacity; 3) issues pertaining to clinicians conducting capacity assessments on older adults; 4) the importance of maximizing self-determination and minimizing harm to older adults whose capacity is being questioned or assessed; and 5) panel discussions of how decision-making capacity issues arise in civil and criminal cases.
The EJI has posted a recording of the full symposium for those unable to attend the symposium or who missed any of the sessions. In addition, EJI has compiled a detailed downloadable resource guide to supplement the symposium presentations. It includes key materials and links for law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, Adult Protective Services staff, civil attorneys, clinicians, and other elder justice professionals, as well as resources that professionals can use in presentations to the public. The updated webpage also includes a comprehensive literature review and other useful items.
To find these and other resources, please visit the symposium webpage:
The master jury list is the first step in the complex process of assembling a pool of prospective jurors. To ensure that the process is efficient and that the resulting jury pool reflects the demographic composition of the community, the master jury list should be broadly inclusive of the adult population, geographically and demographically representative, and contain accurate address records. With funding from SJI, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) Center for Jury Studies examined juror source lists and master jury lists in three states. The final report highlights the implications of using poor quality juror source lists and failing to identify duplicate records during process of merging multiple lists, which resulted in substantially over-inclusive source lists and master jury lists in all three states.
The NCSC concluded that over-inclusiveness can be as problematic as under-inclusiveness. The presence of unrecognized duplicate records and stale records undermines the efficiency of the jury system by incurring printing, postage, and staffing costs for duplicative jury summonses or summonses that do not reach the intended recipients. It also distorts demographic representation in different ways. In some states, it may mask underrepresentation of racial and ethnic groups; in others, it may cause concerns about underrepresentation that does not really exist. The NCSC recommended that state courts use only as many juror source lists as necessary to achieve inclusiveness at or near 100 percent. The choice of which source lists to use should be based on assessments of list quality, especially concerning record accuracy, which may differ from state to state. The report includes detailed recommendations for courts to assess the quality of juror source lists in their respective states and maximize the accuracy of their master jury lists.