Category: News And Announcements

The fact that nearly half of all marriages end in divorce means that a lot of Americans end up in family courts, but many of those courts are not equipped to meet the needs of today’s families, according to a new study by the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Justices (NCJFCJ).

The Family Justice Initiative (FJI), an ambitious, first-of-its-kind project, supported by SJI hopes to change that by making it easier and quicker for litigants to navigate family courts.

“This is an initiative that has the capacity to help courts that are struggling to assist families,” said Alicia Davis, principal court management consultant. “Courts are effective in determining winners and losers, but family courts have to help families solve their problems. If we can study problem-solving strategies, we can eventually say to courts across the country, ‘This is what really helps families.’”

The FJI’s goal is to create better and faster experiences for litigants and less stress and more gratification for judges and other court employees.

The first phase of the three-phase initiative recently ended with the release of a study of 10 large family courts nationwide.  The study showed that cases – whether they are contested or uncontested – take longer than they should, and that courts don’t have good enough data to make changes that will make court processes more efficient and allow court employees to more effectively help litigants.  The specific finding that surprised Davis most is that contested and uncontested cases take about the same amount of time. She was least surprised that between 70 percent and 80 percent of litigants came to court without a lawyer.  “That’s something we’ve been hearing for a long time.”

The second phase of the initiative, currently ongoing, will develop recommendations, with direction from Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark S. Cady, who is leading an advisory committee on the issue.

The third phase is a pilot project stage, which will test those recommendations in 4 pilot courts over a period of approximately 18 months.  A handful of courts have expressed interest in being a pilot court.  The pilot courts will be identified and announced early next year.

The opioid epidemic has had a devastating impact on families, especially on the children of parents who abuse substances. SJI recently awarded the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) a grant to determine how state courts can best help the children who end up in the justice system because of family substance abuse.

The grant will support the efforts of the National Judicial Opioid Task Force’s (NJOTF) workgroup on Children and Families, which is working to identify and pilot innovative state court practices to help children impacted by the opioid crisis.

With the grant, pilot courts will be selected to focus on the following areas:

• Identify early intervention court strategies to help parents with substance abuse issues who are at risk of losing custody of their children.
• Promote evidence-based prevention, identification, and treatment for children and their parents related to Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome and Substance-Exposed Infants.
• Reduce trauma and promote safe and timely placement of children, including the use of trauma assessment instruments, for children, especially those under five years of age.

More information will be available soon on the selection process for pilot sites.

The National Judicial Opioid Task Force (NJOTF) is a project of the Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators.  The NJOTF, which is funded by SJI, consists of three workgroups: Children and Families; Civil and Criminal Justice; and Collaboration and Education.

The National Judicial Opioid Task Force (NJOTF), in collaboration with the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Training and Technical Assistance Center, will hold the second of three webinars in November.   The series intends to help participants gain greater knowledge about how state court systems can, and already are, working with prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) to address the opioid crisis.

Part 2 of this series will address access to, and use of, information contained in PDMPs and feature guest presenters from state courts in Kentucky that are successfully using PDMP data in the justice system process.

To join this webinar on November 15^th at 3:00 PM Eastern Time, click on PDMPs and the Courts: Part 2 or copy and paste this link (https://iir.adobeconnect.com/ncsc_20181115/) into your browser bar.

Advance registration is not required. Adobe Connect will be used for the presentation and may need to be downloaded before the webinar begins.

If you missed Part 1 in this webinar series, you can access it via the NJOTF website: https://pdmpassist.wistia.com/medias/c8m8cs9ruw.

Courts and their stakeholders are encouraged to share this content and invitations to future webinars.

As part of the Human Trafficking and the State Courts Initiative, the Center for Court Innovation (CCI) has developed a video and user guide focusing on court-led responses to human trafficking

The video and the accompanying viewers’ guide, titled, From Defendant to Survivor: How Courts are Responding to Human Trafficking, profile some of the innovative ways courts are responding to the needs of human trafficking victims.  While each court is unique, they share a set of common principles including: responding to defendants’ trauma, connecting them to services, fostering collaboration across the agencies that support victims, and taking a flexible approach to how success is defined in light of the complex and unique challenges facing these victims.

Survivors of sex trafficking are usually treated as criminals—who are arrested and prosecuted—rather than victims. But some courts are changing their approach, recognizing that those arrested on prostitution charges are often victims of coercion, violence, and trauma.

CCI has also made the following related resources available on their site:

• Youth Involvement in the Sex Trade;
• Responding to Sex Trafficking in Your Jurisdiction: A Planning Toolkit;
• Navigating Force and Choice: Experiences in the New York City Sex Trade and the Criminal Justice System’s Response; and,
• Houston’s SAFE Court Offers Victims of Human Trafficking a New Path.

Last year’s wildfires in California destroyed the houses of three Sonoma County Superior County judges, enveloped the Santa Rosa courthouse with smoke for weeks, and forced the deputies assigned to that courthouse to leave and help other first responders.  The wildfires closed the courthouse for two weeks, leading to a caseload nightmare and initial confusion about how to notify the public about rescheduled court dates.

Stories like this – and in other places that recently have had to deal with the aftermath of natural disasters – made it clear to National Center for State Courts (NCSC) staffers that many courts need help to better prepare and better respond to emergencies that force courts to close. NCSC recently received a grant from SJI to help court officials in hurricane-vulnerable places such as Florida, Texas, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and in California (wildfires) and Hawaii (volcanoes).

The first step will be a “lessons-learned” summit early next year, where court officials from those six states and territories will share what has worked and what hasn’t.  Sometime after the summit, NCSC consultants will travel to the six states and territories to review their natural disaster and emergency management plans. The consultants will also make recommendations to update and improve the plans, known as continuity of operations plans, or COOPs.

The grant will also allow NCSC to update its COOP template, which is 10 years old.  An updated COOP template will identify essential steps that court officials should take, and help them know how to connect with state and federal government agencies that can assist them before, during, and after natural disasters.

Finally, NCSC will use a portion of the grant to package the information and make it user friendly, creating an interactive COOP template, and interactive website that court officials can turn to for updated information.

SJI recently released the Grant Guideline for FY 2019.  The Grant Guideline appears as part of the National Archives and Records Administration’s Federal Register, and sets forth the administrative, programmatic, and financial requirements for applying for and administering SJI grants.

Fiscal Year 2019 Deadlines for Project, Technical Assistance, and Curriculum Adaptation Grants are as follows:

• 1st Quarter – November 1, 2018;
• 2nd Quarter – February 1, 2019;
• 3rd Quarter – May 1, 2019; and,
• 4th Quarter – August 1, 2019.

The SJI Board of Directors met on September 10, 2018, at the Supreme Court of Nebraska to make decisions on quarterly grant applications and awarded a total of 11 new grants.

Five (5) Strategic Initiatives Grants were awarded: the National Judicial Opioid Task Force (NJOTF) to begin critical work on the impact of children and opioids in state courts; a final phase of the NJOTF core activities; the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) for continuity of operations planning updates in the wake of Hurricanes Irma, Maria, and Harvey; the NCSC for evidence-based public access policies; and the NCSC for building resilient and transformative courts through judge and staff development.  One (1) Project Grant was awarded to the Colorado Judiciary for a peer-to-peer coaching initiative.  Four (4) Technical Assistance Grants were awarded: a process reengineering project for the New Mexico Court of Appeals; a technology strategic plan for the Pinal County, Arizona, Superior Court; development of a science bench book and webinars for judges for the National Judicial College; and a domestic violence assessment for the Missouri Judiciary.  One (1) Curriculum Adaptation and Training (CAT) Grant was awarded to the New York Unified Court System for a judicial faculty development training program.

The next deadline for grant applications is November 1, 2018 (FY 2019, 1st quarter).

The National Judicial Opioid Task Force (NJOTF), in collaboration with the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Training and Technical Assistance Center, held the first of three webinars earlier this month.   The series is designed to help participants gain greater knowledge about how state courts can, and already are, working with prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) to address the opioid crisis.

Part 2 of this series will address access to, and use of, information contained in PDMPs. Topics in the webinar will include:

• types of PDMP reports;
• court access of PDMP data;
• valuable uses of PDMP information in the justice system; and,
• other important topics.

To join this webinar on October 18th at 3:00 PM Eastern Time, follow this link: https://brandeis.zoom.us/j/132766241  (Advance registration is not required.  Zoom software will be used for the presentation and may need to be downloaded before the webinar begins).

If you missed Part 1 in this webinar series, you can access it via the NJOTF website: https://pdmpassist.wistia.com/medias/c8m8cs9ruw  Courts and their stakeholders are encouraged to share this content and invitations to future webinars.

The Education Support Program (ESP) supports full-time state court judges and court managers to attend courses that enhance their knowledge, skills, and abilities which they could not otherwise attend because of limited state, local, and personal budgets. The National Judicial College (NJC) and the National Center for State Courts/Institute for Court Management (ICM) will administer the ESP program separately, in partnership and with funding from SJI.

COVERED COSTS

The Education Support Program (ESP) only covers the cost of tuition up to a maximum of $1,000 per award.  Awards will be made for the exact amount requested for tuition.  Funds to pay tuition in excess of $1,000, and other costs of participating in a course such as travel, transportation, meals, materials, and transportation to and from airports (including rental cars) at the site of the education program, must be obtained from other sources or be borne by the ESP award recipient.

ELIGIBLE RECIPIENTS

Because of the limited amount of funding available, only full-time judges of state or local trial and appellate courts; full-time professional state or local court personnel with management responsibilities or on a professional career track; and supervisory and management probation officials in judicial branch probation offices are eligible for the program.  Senior judges, part-time judges, quasi-judicial hearing officers including referees and commissioners, administrative law judges, staff attorneys, law clerks, line staff, law enforcement officers, and other executive branch personnel are not eligible.  Applicants are limited to one ESP award every other fiscal year (i.e. if awarded an ESP in FY 2018, the applicant will remain ineligible until FY 2020), unless the course specifically assumes multi-year participation as part of a certificate program.

ELIGIBLE COURSES

Awards are only for courses presented by the NJC and ICM in a U.S. jurisdiction to participants in the U.S. or U.S. Territories. These courses are designed to enhance the skills of new or experienced judges and court managers.  Participation during annual or mid-year conferences or meetings of a state or national organization does not qualify for ESP purposes, even though the conference may include workshops or other training sessions.

HOW AND WHEN TO APPLY

For NJC courses:

To seek an ESP to attend an NJC course, simply find the course you wish to attend on the NJC website: www.judges.org/courses, and click “register.”  During the registration process, the website will ask whether you need a scholarship to attend.  Simply follow the online instructions to request tuition assistance.  If you have any questions about this process, you may contact NJC Scholarship Coordinator Rebecca Bluemer, at bluemer@judges.org or 800-255-8343.  The NJC reserves the right to apply additional selection criteria.

For ICM courses:

To seek an ESP to participate in the ICM Fellows Program, submit a completed application to ICM Education Program Manager Amy McDowell, at amcdowell@ncsc.org.  If you have any questions about this process, you may contact her at 757-259-1552 or via email.

To seek an ESP to participate in an ICM course, find the course you wish to attend on the ICM website: www.courses.ncsc.org, and click “register.”  During the registration process, the website will ask if you need a scholarship to participate.  Follow the online instructions to request tuition assistance.  If you have any questions about this process, you may contact, ICM Director of National Programs Margaret Allen, at mallen@ncsc.org or 757-259-1581.  ICM reserves the right to apply additional selection criteria.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF ESP AWARD RECIPIENTS

Recipients are responsible for disseminating the information received from the course, when possible, to their court colleagues locally and, if possible, throughout the state.  The NJC and ICM may impose additional requirements on recipients.

The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) and the SJI-funded Community Engagement in the State Courts Initiative is supporting up to six pilot projects to learn more about how courts can best engage the public to improve trust and confidence in the judiciary.  The selected courts will receive as much as $30,000 in funding; technical assistance from the NCSC; and an independent evaluation of the program.  The NCSC will provide resources and support as indicated in the Request for Letters of Interest.