Category: News And Announcements

The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) recently published the results from its comprehensive public opinion survey of 1,000 registered voters. The survey was conducted by telephone November 12 – 16, 2014.

Key findings of the survey include:

• Courts remain the most trusted branch of government;
• Court users express confidence in fairness of proceedings, but have doubts about customer service and job performance;
• There is a strong demand for greater availability of online services; and,
• The public worries that politics undermines the impartiality of the court system

A summary of poll results provided by the firm, GBA Strategies, and the presentation are available for viewing.

The Massachusetts Judiciary continues to coordinate resources to broaden access to civil justice for all litigants. Programs and services are focused on self-represented litigants, individuals with limited or no English proficiency, and individuals with mental or physical disabilities.

In FY 2013, the Massachusetts Trial Court created the Access to Justice Initiative to enhance access for the public and court staff. With support from SJI (SJI-12-T-132), the Boston Municipal, District, and Housing Courts introduced small claims forms translated into the seven most widely-used languages. In addition, a self-help video project created complementary small claims videos in those languages.

With additional SJI assistance (SJI-13-T-084), the Massachusetts Administrative Office of the Trial Court (AOTC) has been preparing to implement a technical assistance pilot project that will help to establish a model language access courthouse at the Worcester Trial Court. The project, now in its implementation phase, aims to address several key areas of concern for all trial courts throughout the state, including:

• Delivery of justice to limited English proficient (LEP) individuals;
• Standardization of flexible service plans for trial courts to serve LEP and self-represented litigants; and,
• Replicable standards, policies, and protocols for language access in the courts.

Much of the past year has been focused on developing a cohesive LEP Advisory Committee, consisting of key justice stakeholders, to oversee the project.

Implementation of this initiative aligns with the Judiciary’s strategic plan regarding access to justice through improving the coordination of resources set forth in the FY 2013 Annual Report on the State of the Massachusetts Court System.

Completion of the work later this year will help to establish a model language access courthouse at the Worcester Trial Court, and make resources available to other state courts that can be adapted to their own collaborative language access projects.

The Center for Public Policy Studies (CPPS) and the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) recently released an information card that focuses on federal Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), which provides unaccompanied immigrant children, defined as Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) in federal immigration law, with a temporary right to remain in the U.S. and apply for permanent resident status. In cases where the UAC wants to apply to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) for SIJS, the juvenile must supply USCIS with a state juvenile court order with certain findings. This information card also provides details on the types of findings required, and the types of cases where these juveniles will most likely end up in state courts.

FY 2014 proved to be an eventful year for Arkansas Supreme Court Chief Justice James Hannah, who serves as the SJI Board Chairman. He became President of the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) and Chair of the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) Board, and was recently inducted into the Warren E. Burger Society. As CCJ President and NCSC Chair, Hannah will work with colleagues to identify and develop both judicial and practitioner responses to challenges facing the state court community. He will also represent both groups at national events throughout the 2014-15 year. Membership in the Warren E. Burger Society is granted to “volunteers who have demonstrated an exemplary commitment to improving the administration of justice through extraordinary contributions of service or support to the National Center for State Courts.” Hannah was presented with this honor in November, along with former SJI Board member Judge Sophia Hall. He joins fellow SJI Board Secretary, Senior Circuit Court Judge Gayle Nachtigal who was admitted in 2009.

The Board met on December 8, 2014, at the Judicial Council of California, to make decisions on quarterly grant applications and awarded a total of 16 grants. One (1) Strategic Initiatives Grant was awarded to the New York Unified Court System (UCS) to host a National Summit on Human Trafficking and the State Courts. The UCS, in partnership with the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ), Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA), the SJI-funded Human Trafficking and the State Courts Collaborative, and the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) will hold a one-and-a-half day summit to examine the issue of human trafficking (both labor and sex) and identify best practices from existing court programs and the work of the Collaborative. Collaborative members will be present to assist state participants in developing action plans, or improving existing plans. The Summit will be designed based on the same model used for the very successful National Summit on Language Access and the Courts (SJI-12-P-015). Four participants from each state, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories will be invited, including the chief justice, state court administrator, a judge designated by the chief justice with knowledge or interest in human trafficking, and a fourth person designated by the chief justice who has taken a leadership role in responding to human trafficking (e.g., attorney general, advocate/service provider, prosecutor, or defense attorney). It is anticipated that approximately 250 attendees will participate in the summit. The summit will include keynote speakers, panels, and break-out session for the state teams. The Collaborative will facilitate summit activities, as well as provide onsite guidance and technical assistance for teams as they begin establishing the framework for their action plans.

Three (3) Project Grants were approved: support to the National Association for Court Management (NACM) for educational programming focused on all of SJI’s Priority Investment Areas; the NCSC for a next generation case management systems standards project; and the NCSC to support CCJ in national pandemic planning and emergency response. Eight (8) Technical Assistance (TA) Grants were approved, including: a human trafficking project for the Guam Judiciary; strategic planning projects for the Coconino County, Arizona, Courts, 43rd Judicial District Court of Common Pleas, Pennsylvania, and the King County, Washington, Superior Court; the Montana Supreme Court for a juvenile probation workload study; the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court for a jury management project; caseflow and calendaring improvement for the 2nd Judicial District of Minnesota; and a probation statistical data collection project for the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts.

Four (4) Curriculum Adaptation & Training (CAT) Grants were approved, including: online ethics training for the Illinois AOC; assistance to the Connecticut Judiciary for a training program on serving citizens with hidden disabilities; judicial faculty development for the Minnesota Judicial Branch; and a records management training program for the Judicial Council of Georgia. The next grant application deadline is February 1, 2015.

The National Association for Court Management recently announced an update of its core competencies – The Core. Through the support provided by the State Justice Institute (SJI), the Core is now available online (SJI-11-I-165). The Core tag line, “Strengthening Court Professionals,” defines NACM’s goal in updating its core competencies. NACM’s approach provides a roadmap to the profession—from the foundational knowledge of the enduring principles that every individual working in the court system should possess, to the more complex and advanced areas required to be an effective court professional. As such, the Core is organized into three modules: Principles, Practice, and Vision. Within each are competencies that describe what court professionals need to know within the diverse field of court administration while promoting excellence in the administration of justice.

SJI frequently receives Technical Assistance (TA) grant requests for strategic planning. These applications address a myriad of changes that have occurred within the court, among the courts and its partners, and the demographics of the community. Frequently, these applications address multiple SJI Priority Investment Areas, such as providing access to justice for self-represented litigants and limited English proficient court users. Recently, two jurisdictions already utilizing the High Performance Court (HPC) Framework completed a strategic planning process.

The Mohave County Courts (SJI-13-T-020) unveiled its 2014—2018 Strategic Plan earlier this year, which revised an existing document and process that was five years in the making. With assistance from the NCSC, the Strategic Planning Committee, including representatives from the Superior Court, Justice Court, Clerk, probation, and county administration, collaborated on a cohesive vision to meet the needs of the community.

Using the HPC Self-Assessment that addresses ten core areas of court performance, the SPC identified areas for improvement in the new plan. Five “Strategic Pillars” for the Mohave Courts were identified including: serving the public; delivering timely justice; court access, facilities, and infrastructure; engaged staff; and community collaboration and outreach. Results of the assessment, detailed descriptions of the pillars, and guidance regarding implementation are included in the final report. The Mohave County Courts Strategic Plan is available through the NCSC Digital Library.

The Superior Court of the U.S. Virgin Islands (SJI-13-T-087), which includes operations in the Divisions of St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix, began utilizing the HPC Framework following their implementation of CourTools over five years ago. Utilizing the same format, judicial, administrative, and human resources leadership from the Court collaborated to establish three principal objectives, including, access and fairness for the community, delivering timely justice, and employee satisfaction. The strategic plan includes: the Court’s mission, vision, and action steps; the process used to develop the plan and disseminate the HPC Self-Assessment; and, recommendations from the Access and Fairness Task Force.

The Self-Represented Litigation Network (SRLN) and the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) are assessing the development of programs to provide services to self-represented litigants through remote technology (SJI-14-P-081). This project currently involves five participating court systems (CA, UT, AL, MD, and MN), and one large trial court in California (Orange County). The project will consist of two phases: An assessment of five states that have state or local court-sponsored remote/virtual service delivery processes for assisting self-represented litigants, in addition to three programs from other access to justice entities, such as legal service organizations. This phase will observe and gather cost/benefit information on these existing programs and produce a resource handbook describing their business models, technology infrastructures, and strengths/weaknesses. The resource handbook will be helpful to other states seeking to develop these types of programs.

The development of a full service pilot “triage portal” will serve as a single point of entry to legal information and services for self-represented litigants. The portal will help individuals assess their legal issues and needs, directing them to the most appropriate service for their case using established triage protocols. The protocols were developed under a previous SJI grant (SJI-12-P-085). The pilot portal will be conducted in one of the jurisdictions involved in the study of current remote services delivery programs, and will incorporate the best practices identified in that study.

Supported by SJI, the Language Access Basic Training (LABT) Suite is a project developed by the New Mexico Center for Language Access along with the National Center for State Courts, the Council of Language Access Coordinators (CLAC), and the Language Access Advisory Committee (LAAC).

The LABT Suite provides language access training and qualification for state courts in order to improve the quality of language access services outside the courtroom for Limited English Proficient (LEP) individuals. The LABT Suite is a downloadable interactive training module for bilingual court employees who interact with people outside of the courtroom. The purpose of the training is to ensure that all court employees have a basic understanding of their ethical and legal obligations, as well as current best practices in serving LEP and non-English speaking individuals. SJI encourages all state courts to take advantage of this excellent training opportunity.

The Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) at the University of Denver, recently announced its findings on Colorado’s efforts to reform civil court proceedings with new court procedures. This project was supported by SJI based on the Colorado Supreme Court’s request that IAALS evaluate the success of these reforms (SJI-12-N-127).

“The impetus behind the new rules was our growing awareness and concern that the prohibitive costs and delays of civil litigation were foreclosing access to the judicial system,” said Judge Ann Frick, a leader on this issue from the beginning of the initiative. The IAALS report, Momentum for Change: The Impact of the Colorado Civil Access Pilot Project, outlines the results of Colorado’s effort to address those issues, based on two years of data collection and empirical evaluation. “I am grateful for the enthusiastic participation by the bench and bar in the project,” said Judge Wick.

The Colorado Civil Access Pilot Project (CAPP) was developed by a committee of plaintiff and defense lawyers, as well as bar leaders. Beginning in 2012, five state district courts began testing the new pretrial procedures for pleading, disclosure, discovery, and case management in business cases.

As a whole, CAPP has succeeded in achieving many of its objectives, including:

• The CAPP rules reduce the time to resolution over both of Colorado’s existing procedures (standard and simplified). The rules increase the probability of an earlier resolution over the standard procedure.
• Four out of five attorneys in CAPP cases indicated that the time it took to reach resolution in a case was proportionate, and three out of four agreed that the costs to get there were also proportionate.
• CAPP cases benefit from management by a single judge, who handles the case much earlier and twice as often.
• The CAPP process is not tilted in favor of either plaintiffs or defendants.

The research also highlights a number of persistent challenges in creating new rules, including determining the appropriate basis for differentiating cases, the logistics of how each part of the process relates to the other aspects, and issues of compliance and enforcement.

IAALS, in partnership with the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) and the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) has been developing guidelines and best practices for civil litigation based on the work in Colorado and other states through the ongoing SJI-funded Civil Justice Initiative. Their collaboration will also provide templates for civil rules and operational practices that can be adopted nationwide. The IAALS’ evaluation provides a detailed source of information, and further answers the national call for robust empirical data on proposed civil justice reforms. Pilot projects and rules changes for civil cases are being implemented all over the country in both state and federal courts. These projects will provide decision-makers with concrete information on how to improve civil justice in their states and across the U.S.