Category: News And Announcements

The FY 2026 1st Quarter SJI Board Meeting was held on Monday, December 15th, 2025, at the Pennsylvania Judicial Center in Harrisburg, PA. SJI Executive Director, Jonathan Mattiello, Senior Program Advisor, Michelle White, and members of the SJI Board were joined by Justice P. Kevin Brobson of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, State Court Administrator, Andrea Tuominen, and staff of the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC).

#SJIBoardofDirectors #SJIBoard #StateJusticeInstitute #SJIBoardMeeting #PennsylvaniaJudicialCenter #PennsylvaniaSupremeCourt #FY2026

The IAALS, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, has just launched the Uncomplicated Courts Initiative, a national effort to redesign how people navigate high-volume civil cases.

SJI is honored to fund this initiative—driving forward solutions that make our courts clearer, easier to navigate, and more responsive to the people they serve. Through this initiative, IAALS aims to create a justice journey that is simpler, more supportive, and more responsive to the millions of people who navigate these cases each year. It will provide a clear, research-driven framework that will:

• Map and streamline the full case pathway to eliminate unnecessary steps
• Integrate legal help strategically—from lawyers to allied professionals to navigators
• Develop user-centered technology that guides people through forms and required actions
• Pilot redesigned models with courts and create a replicable national blueprint

“Justice should serve people, not confuse them,” said Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson (Ret.) of the Texas Supreme Court. “Uncomplicated Courts is about removing needless complexity so people can resolve their disputes and protect their rights even if they cannot find a lawyer.”

Read the full article here: https://iaals.du.edu/blog/iaals-launches-uncomplicated-courts-initiative-redesign-justice-journey-all

#UncomplicatedCourtsInitiative #SJI #IAALS #Collaboration #Courts #JusticeSystem #HighVolumeCivilCases #StateCourts

IAALS, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, and the Berkeley Judicial Institute (BJI)—with support from the State Justice Institute—recently released A Blueprint for Judicial Innovation, which details takeaways from Advancing Innovation: A National Summit on Judicial Leadership. The publication distills insights from a national gathering of nearly 50 judicial leaders across 30 jurisdictions and offers concrete guidance for judges who are ready to drive people-centered reform across our justice system.

Throughout the country, courts are grappling with unmet legal needs, complex and opaque processes, widening inequities, and declining public trust. The Blueprint makes a simple, urgent case: judicial leadership is indispensable to rebuilding confidence and modernizing court systems. It presents a practical roadmap—rooted in real courtroom experiences—for judges to lead change ethically, effectively, and sustainably.

“Innovation is not an optional add-on to judging. A judge’s ability to do justice is directly informed by the quality of our justice system. Judges must be active participants in the work to improve our justice system so that it can fulfill the promise of equal justice for all,” said IAALS CEO Brittany Kauffman. “This Blueprint translates aspiration into action and identifies the resources judges need, the obstacles they face, and the concrete steps that move courts from status quo to people-centered systems.”

Drawing from sessions, roundtables, and skill-building workshops, the Blueprint highlights:

• Resources judges need to succeed: Engaged people and partners, reliable technology and data capacity, diverse funding, time, a culture of creativity and iteration, and robust wellness supports.

• The role of judges in leading innovation: Why frontline insight and judicial authority are pivotal for systems-level change.

• Competencies of innovative leadership: From strategic thinking and data use to coalition-building and judicial wellness.

• Common barriers and how to overcome them: Resource constraints, status-quo bias, ethical misconceptions, siloing, and collaboration challenges—paired with strategies to build buy-in and momentum.

• Actionable strategies for the bench: Normalize change, question assumptions, pilot and iterate, gather data, engage skeptics, simplify processes, communicate clearly, and just get started.

Read the full report here.

The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) has just launched a new court planning framework, funded by the State Justice Institute, designed to strengthen court resilience and responsiveness by incorporating a rigorous focus on the future. Building on the Just Horizons work, the Future Ready Courts (FRC) framework helps courts anticipate and prepare for a wide range of potential scenarios, making it easier to adapt when change occurs.

“For many of us, thinking about the future is hard, especially with so many competing priorities right in front of us. It takes time and mental energy because we can’t just rely on what we already know,” said Pam Casey, NCSC vice president of research and design. “But thinking about the future can also be liberating, an opportunity to zoom out and see possibilities that are not evident when we are only focused on today. The FRC framework intentionally gives us space to think about and prepare for those possibilities.”

Future-focused framework

By integrating future-focused activities, the FRC framework helps courts think rigorously and systematically about the future, expanding our typical approach to strategic planning.

Strategic foresight, a critical pillar of the framework, helps courts identify drivers of change and envision alternative scenarios to see the bigger picture and help courts consider how core business functions and operations might change in both the near and distant future.

The FRC framework includes three interconnected components:

1. Strategic foresight: Envisioning alternative scenarios by identifying key drivers of change, emerging trends, and signals that influence the court’s future.
2. Strategic planning: Setting strategic priorities, goals, and objectives that align with the court’s mission, vision, and values.
3. Executing and adapting: Implementing plans, tracking results, and adapting strategic priorities to maintain resilience.

Future-proof your court with the comprehensive guide, “Building Future Ready Courts,” and read the full article here: Building future ready courts | National Center for State Courts

The SJI Board of Directors will be meeting on Monday, December 15, 2025, at 1:00 PM ET.  The purpose of this meeting is to consider grant applications for the 1^st quarter of FY 2025, and other business.

ADDRESS:  Pennsylvania Judicial Center, 601 Commonwealth Avenue, Suite 1500, Harrisburg, PA.

The Institute for Intergovernmental Research, in partnership with the State Justice Institute, created the Reaching Rural Resource Center: Justice and Behavioral Health. This site serves as a comprehensive resource hub and connection point to share timely publications, complementary websites, webinars and other virtual leaning opportunities, and solution-oriented guidance specifically focusing on rural communities at the nexus of justice, behavioral health, and substance use disorder (SUD).

The R3C will be maintained by IIR as a “living” space, evolving to reflect the dynamic disciplines, experts, and organizations driving solutions for rural America by continually canvassing the field for additional materials, program spotlights, funding sources, and evidence-based practices. Some of the most-referenced, no-cost resources on the R3C include IIR’s Overdose Fatality Review website (featuring a suite of practical toolkits), Successful Strategies for Addressing the Opioid Epidemic in Rural Communities series, and resources related to implementing peer support services across the intercepts.

Through funding provided by SJI, IIR and partnering agency Rulo Strategies are able to offer field-assisted support at no charge to rural communities. Through the R3C, users can request a wide range of tailored assistance in different modalities, including virtual coaching, on-site visits, resource gathering, networking, and grant-writing support. The site also features a Collaboration Center, where rural practitioners from across the country can virtually network—sharing, learning, and force-multiplying one another’s important work. The R3C—and its opportunities for peer-to-peer connection, multisystem collaboration, and professional development—is intentionally and impactfully filling gaps in field-focused assistance left by the cancellation of the Reaching Rural Initiative. The R3C team looks forward to its continued work with rural communities across the United States and hopes that the Reaching Rural Resource Center: Justice and Behavioral Health is a valuable tool in the collective commitment to support justice-involved individuals battling mental health issues and SUD.

Traffic cases continue to dominate state court caseloads while growing civil dockets are surpassing criminal cases with the second largest number of filings, according to newly released data from NCSC’s Court Statistics Project (CSP).

“We’ve been tracking traffic trends for some time, so we’re not surprised by the 2024 data showing that traffic filings continued to recover after one of the largest drops during the pandemic,” said Nicole Waters, NCSC’s director of data, analytics, and forecasting. “By tracking these state and national trends, we provide important data-driven insights courts can use in their decision-making.”

Delivering a comprehensive overview

In 2024, states saw traffic infractions accounting for about 46% of all incoming cases. An 11% increase in contract cases, including growing numbers of real property disputes, prompted the rise in civil filings.

The updated CSP dashboards reflect data from over 200 reporting units that was either self-reported or collected through alternate sources like annual reports. These interactive dashboards provide overviews for trial and appellate courts and track data points including incoming case types, clearance rates, dispositions, and trials (bench and jury).

Comparing court structures & governance

The Court Statistics Project also maintains data on how state and local courts are organized, structured, and governed in its State Court Organization dashboard. A recent upgrade to the dashboard includes enhanced filters, summaries, and related resources.

A longstanding commitment to court statistics

A collaborative initiative of NCSC and the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA), the Court Statistics Project collects, analyzes, and publishes caseload data from state courts across the country, offering insights that empower court leaders to make data-driven decisions.

For over 50 years, CSP has served as the primary resource for understanding trends in court operations, helping stakeholders allocate resources, implement policies, and improve public trust in the justice system.

Learn more about the Court Statistics Project.

Read more here: Explore court caseload data | National Center for State Courts

Generative AI is transforming how courts automate processes, streamline workflows, and serve the public — creating opportunities for efficiency while raising questions about ethics, accuracy, and fairness. Judges, administrators, and court staff now have access to free, role-specific training to help them adopt artificial intelligence responsibly in court operations.

To help courts implement AI responsibly, the Thomson Reuters Institute (TRI)/NCSC AI Policy Consortium for Law & Courts has launched AI Literacy for Courts. The new educational program was created by the consortium’s workforce readiness workgroup and offers tailored learning pathways for judges, administrators, staff attorneys, court reporters, clerks, and interpreters.

The program offers more than 20 resources in various formats — videos, webinars, reports, guidance documents, and knowledge-check questions — designed to meet the specific needs of different court roles. Eight resources apply to all, while others target specific positions with tailored content that addresses their unique responsibilities and challenges.

Curriculum highlights include:

• Ethical principles and operational best practices: Data privacy, fairness, transparency, human oversight, and risk avoidance.
• AI tools in court operations: Practical applications for HR tasks, translation services, public-facing chatbots, legal research, and document review.
• Navigating emerging challenges: Advanced guidance on deepfake evidence, risk mitigation, preventing “hallucinations,” effective governance, and ethical guardrails.

An introductory webinar on Nov. 19, “AI Literacy for Courts: A New Framework for Role-Specific Education,” will showcase the program, explore resources available for each court role, and provide implementation strategies for court leaders.

The consortium’s October webinar, “Key Considerations for Using Generative AI Tools in Legal Practice and Courts,” is available on demand and offers foundational best practices for courts considering AI adoption.

Visit ncsc.org/ai to find the course and access more AI resources.