Category: News And Announcements

The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) recently released the results of the 2015 State of State Courts Survey.

The results show that courts remain the most trusted branch of government, and Americans recognize their unique role in protecting individual rights.  However, persistent concerns about customer service, inefficiency, and bias are undermining the public’s confidence in the courts.  Key findings from this year’s survey show that concerns about inefficiency and unfairness are deep-seated and real, and African Americans express significantly less faith in the courts than the population as a whole.

The survey is based on telephone interviews with 1,000 registered voters nationwide.  The interviews were completed between October 26-29, 2015 by GBA Strategies.

This assessment was conducted by the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) at the request of the Supreme Court of Missouri with grant support from SJI (SJI-15-T-119).

The goal was to identify best practices in operating and managing limited jurisdiction courts throughout the United States, and suggest how those practices may be applied to municipal courts in Missouri. The impetus for this analysis was sparked by a recent Department of Justice (DOJ) assessment of the Ferguson, Missouri Police Department which also alluded to problems and improprieties in the operation of the Ferguson Municipal Court.

Court officials in Missouri were concerned that some of the difficulties in Ferguson extended to a broader range of municipal courts in the state.  Beginning in May 2015, the NCSC reviewed studies and reports on Missouri’s municipal courts (including the March 2015, DOJ Report), examined data on court performance, met with the Supreme Court of Missouri, and visited, observed, and interviewed judges, lawyers, and court staff in a select number of municipal courts throughout the state. A number of attorneys, judges, county, city, and court officials and staff throughout Missouri were interviewed during these site visits.

The report is divided into four subject matter sections, each with specific recommendations for immediate and sustained improvement:

• leadership and governance
• judicial selection retention and evaluation
• court management
• fiscal and financial operations

The final report and recommendations are applicable to all states with limited jurisdiction courts.  SJI strongly encourages other state courts to closely examine these recommendations.

The SJI Board of Directors met on November 16, 2015, at the Supreme Court of Louisiana in New Orleans to make decisions on quarterly grant applications and awarded a total of fourteen (14) new grants.  Two (2) Project Grants were awarded: support to the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) to update the Managing Notorious Trials for the 21st Century; and the National Association for Court Management (NACM) for educational sessions on critical court management topics.  Ten (10) Technical Assistance (TA) Grants were approved, including: assistance to the Louisiana Supreme Court for a court costs and fees collection improvement plan; support to the North Dakota Supreme Court for a caseflow management project; strategic planning for the 7th Judicial Circuit of Maryland; and support to the Council for Court Excellence for a cross-jurisdictional review of remote public access to electronic court records.  Two (2) Curriculum Adaptation & Training (CAT) Grants were approved: support to the Guam Judiciary for a Working Interdisciplinary Network of Guardianship Stakeholders (WINGS) Implementation and Guardianship training project; and the Merced County, California, Superior Court for online courthouse security training.

The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) recently released a report titled, The Landscape of Civil Litigation of State Courts, which examines case characteristics and outcomes for 925,344 civil cases disposed during a one-year interval from courts exercising jurisdiction over civil cases in 10 urban counties in the United States.  These 925,344 cases comprise approximately 5 percent of state civil caseloads nationally.

Among the report’s key findings:

• More than half of the Landscape cases were low-value debt collection, landlord/tenant, and small claims cases.
• For the civil caseloads, three-quarters of the judgements entered were $5,200 or less.
• Most cases were resolved through an administrative process rather than an adversarial proceeding.
• At least one party was self-represented in more than three-quarters of the cases.

Landscape is the first significant multi-jurisdiction study of civil caseloads since the 1992 Civil Justice Survey of State Courts, and is more comprehensive than the 1992 study insofar that it examines the entire civil caseload, rather than just cases filed in general jurisdiction courts.  With SJI support (SJI-13-P-201), the NCSC undertook the Landscape study to inform the deliberations of the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) Civil Justice Improvements Committee.  The CCJ Civil Justice Improvements Committee is expected to release its final report and recommendations for addressing these challenges in early 2016.

In 2011, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) developed a report summarizing guidance from a National Working Group on how courts use offender risk and needs assessment (RNA) information to inform corrections-related decisions.  The Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators subsequently endorsed the report, and passed Resolution 7 recommending that “offender risk and needs assessment information be available to inform judicial decisions regarding effective management and reduction of the risk of offender recidivism.”  A new report that explores how ten jurisdictions from across the country have been using defendant risk and needs assessment information at sentencing is now available.  This report, Using Risk and Needs Assessment Information at Sentencing: Observations from Ten Jurisdictions, offers examples of how these jurisdictions have implemented the nine guiding principles for using RNAs to inform sentencing and probation revocation decisions.  It also captures themes in stakeholder perceptions of RNA information and its use at sentencing, experiences in adopting these reforms, and lessons learned.  Visit the NCSC’s Center for Sentencing Initiatives website for more details on the project and additional resources on the sentencing of offenders in the state courts.

To help courts effectively handle the growing number of guardianship cases,  the National Center for State Court’s Center for Elders and the Courts developed a webinar that outlines specific steps courts can take to improve services.  The webinar, sponsored by the National Association for Court Management (NACM), based on its Adult Guardianship Guide — encourages courts to improve data collection and move toward performance measures.

The National Summit on Human Trafficking and the State Courts was held October 7-9, 2015, in New York City.  Each state sent a team made up of judges, court managers, and other key stakeholders, as appointed by that state’s chief justice.  The Summit was an overwhelming success, with teams from 46 states, 4 U.S. Territories, and the District of Columbia.

The first day was filled with expert panel discussions on human trafficking from the judicial perspective; labor trafficking; engaging stakeholders; and innovative strategies to address human trafficking by courts and communities.  The second day included breakout sessions for state teams to work on their state court action plans for responding to human trafficking.  The state teams then reconvened to report back on the action planning and discuss their goals moving forward.

The Summit was hosted by the New York Unified Court System, under the leadership of Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman.  The Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ), Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA), National Center for State Courts (NCSC), New York State Bar Association, and the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York also partnered on this incredible event.  More information about the Summit, including plenary session videos, will be released soon.

The Center for Public Policy Studies (CPPS) and the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) are increasing state court capacity to address the increasing number of immigrant children likely to appear in state courts.  With SJI support, CPPS and the NCSC recently released a Guide to State Court Cases Involving Unaccompanied Immigrant Children.  The purpose of the Guide is to increase understanding among state court judges, court administrators, and other key stakeholders regarding:

• Federal immigration law, policy, and practice, and the impact on state court cases involving Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs);
• How the work of the state courts in cases involving UACs intersects with the needs of the federal immigration system;
• The different types of cases and matters where UACs might appear in state courts; and
• The potential role of the state courts in providing factual findings in cases involving UACs.

While there are other forms of federal immigration relief for refugees, victims of human trafficking, and other groups, the Guide focuses solely on the state court findings required for use in federal determination of Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS). The Guide also provides recommended action steps for state courts to use in addressing cases involving UACs.

To date, CPPS and the NCSC have: hosted a national webinar on the UAC issue, which is available online;  created a webpage for additional resources; released an information card for judges and court practitioners on SIJS.

The SJI Board of Directors met on September 21, 2015, at the Supreme Court of Texas in Austin to make decisions on quarterly grant applications and awarded a total of ten (10) new grants.  The Board awarded a Strategic Initiatives Grant (SIG) to support the National Conservatorship Accounting Project.  Through this project, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) will further expand conservator monitoring software first developed in Minnesota (also with SJI support).  The project will: 1) disseminate, adapt, and pilot conservatorship accounting software developed in Minnesota to three additional states; and 2) develop and test tools to identify problematic cases and direct critical resources to those cases.  As part of these efforts, the NCSC will convene a Conservatorship Accountability Project Network to encourage more states to adopt this software.  The Board also awarded a SIG to the NCSC to support the State Courts Election Law Resources project in preparation for the 2016 elections.  This project will result in an election law curriculum that each state can use to develop its own customized lesson plans; a series of on-demand webinars featuring prominent subject matter experts; and a resource toolkit on election law available to state court judges.

Six (6) Technical Assistance (TA) Grants were approved, including: assistance to the Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Common Pleas Court for an operational review; a Family Law Unit Reengineering project in the Orange County, California, Superior Court; assistance to the Arkansas Administrative Office of the Courts for a statewide juvenile probation officer review; funding to the Fulton County, Georgia, Juvenile Court to support a project focusing on educational neglect cases; training tools for state court judges on Special Immigrant Juvenile Status provided by American University; and, a court consolidation impact assessment for the 25th District Court of Michigan.

Two (2) Curriculum Adaptation & Training (CAT) Grants were approved: support to the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) for judicial education on human trafficking issues, including a new focus on developing jurisdictional collaborative teams to address human trafficking; and the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts for an online pretrial services education program which will be made available to all state courts.