Category: News And Announcements

During the 2nd quarter Board meeting, 6 SIG grants were awarded totaling $275,158. These projects address one of SJI’s new Priority Investment Areas: Self-Represented Litigation and the State Courts. SIG grants were made to the: 1) Judicial Council of California to train bilingual JusticeCorps volunteers to provide enhanced services for self-represented litigants (SRLs); 2)Indiana Administrative Office of the Courts to train volunteer college and law students to serve statewide pro se clinic clients; 3) National Center for State Courts (NCSC) to develop a standard set of definitions and counting rules for cases involving one or more SRLs; 4) Self-Represented Litigation Network (SRLN) and NCSC to develop formal case triage protocols for assistance to SRLs; 5) SRLN to facilitate state court reimbursement under Title IV-D, and promote awareness of this resource; and 6) South Carolina Access to Justice Commission for delivery of legal information to SRLs in underserved areas of South Carolina.

On April 17, 2012, the Senate Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Subcommittee on Appropriations marked up the FY 2013 CJS bill, which included $5,121,000 for SJI—the same level provided in FY 2012 and requested in the FY 2013 President’s Budget. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the CJS bill on April 19, 2012. Also on April 19th, the House CJS Subcommittee marked up the bill, which included $5,121,000 for SJI. The House Appropriations Committee approved the bill on April 26, 2012. SJI greatly appreciates the continued support of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. SJI will provide updates as the appropriations process continues to move forward.

The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) recently announced that the final products from the SJI-funded Phase II: A National Campaign to Ensure the Racial and Ethnic Fairness of America’s State Courts (SJI-08-I-084) are now available on the NCSC website. The project is the final phase of the National Campaign to Ensure Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts—a project initiated in collaboration with the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) and Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA) Access and Public Trust Committees in 2006.

The resources include a report on three pilot educational programs on implicit bias and shorter excerpts that can be used as stand-alone pieces for presentations and judicial education programs. A summary and accessible links to the resources developed under this grant include:

• Helping Courts Address Implicit Bias: Resources for Education: describes and evaluates the three pilot judicial education programs on implicit bias and offers lessons learned. It also includes appendices with resource materials for programs on implicit bias.
• Addressing Implicit Bias in the Courts: briefly describes the implicit bias phenomenon and outlines potential strategies that court professionals can use to combat implicit bias.
• Implicit Bias: Frequently Asked Questions: addresses some common questions about implicit bias and what contemporary science tells us about this cognitive phenomenon.
• Strategies to Reduce the Influence of Implicit Bias: identifies conditions that may give rise to implicitly biased judgment or behavior and details seven general approaches to address implicit bias in the courts based on current scientific research.

A manuscript submitted to the Justice System Journal, and a forthcoming article in the UCLA Law Review is also available.

SJI’s solicitation for concept papers dealing with self-represented litigation and the state courts resulted in 47 papers; totaling $4,770,208. Self-represented litigation in the state courts was designated an SJI Priority Investment Area for FY 2012. Once the Board has awarded grants for selected projects, more details will be provided.

SJI continues to receive over $1 million in grant applications per quarter., and encourages potential applicants to consider submitting their application as early in the fiscal year as possible. In addition, SJI staff can assist potential applicants in determining whether their proposed projects are eligible within the parameters of SJI’s Grant Guideline. It is important for potential applicants to consider the timing of applications. While SJI has not previously allocated all grant funding before the 4th quarter of a given fiscal year, increases in quarterly applications, designation of Priority Investment Areas, and potential partner grants at the national level have an impact on available grant funding. In addition to the requirements contained in the Grant Guideline, applicants are also being asked if their proposed projects advance one or more Priority Investment Areas, and if not, why.

Potential applicants are encouraged to contact SJI with any questions. The deadline for 3rd quarter grant applications is May 1, 2012. The deadline for 4th quarter grant applications is August 1, 2012.

With the support of the SJI, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) and William   Mary Law School’s Institute for Bill of Rights Law launched the State Supreme Court Initiative (SSCI) in FY 2010 (SJI-10-N-147). The project began with three initial goals: 1) to study and report on the work and decisions of state supreme courts; 2) to encourage journalists and academics to engage in similar study; and, 3) to provide a new vehicle for public education about the important work of state supreme courts

The primary vehicle through which SSCI is working towards these objectives is a website featuring: 1) a database of detailed information and statistics about state supreme courts and their opinions; and 2) a blog for the state supreme court decisions modeled off the highly successful SCOTUSblog for U.S. Supreme Court decisions. In the fall of 2010, SSCI convened a task force made up of prominent legal journalists, state supreme court scholars, transparency advocates, clerks, and judges. The task force discussed the shape of the project and plotted strategies to move ahead. At the suggestion of the task force, SSCI undertook a two-month trial last spring during which two William   Mary Law students explored state supreme court information networks and approaches to covering state supreme courts. The students analyzed various aspects of state supreme courts (opinion release schedules, volume, opinion release format, etc.). They also tested how to blog about state supreme court outcomes, getting a sense of how much time it takes and what resources are needed.

The trial proved to be a great learning experience. Building on this work, a state supreme court “bloginar” course began with a series of lectures on state supreme courts as institutions. Law students have been assigned five state supreme courts to cover. Students are currently blogging weekly about state supreme court outcomes, upcoming cases, and court composition matters, generating approximately 30 posts per week. In addition, the students are creating profiles with information about the unique history and make up of each state supreme court.

The SSCI will rollout the blog/website and products by the summer of 2012.

SJI continues to make all grant reports and most grant products available online through the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) Library and Digital Archive. Potential applicants are encouraged to thoroughly research the online library for reports on their topic area, prior to submitting a grant application to SJI. The NCSC Library and Digital Archive are two different resources with unique URLs. It is recommended that searches for SJI grant reports and other state court resources begin with the NCSC Library section.

The NCSC Library also maintains an active Twitter feed with state court updates and additions to the collection.

The National Judicial Education Program (NJEP), a project of Legal Momentum, has been working to update training provided through its popular course, Intimate Partner Sexual Abuse: Adjudicating This Hidden Dimension of Domestic Violence Cases (SJI-11-E-154). The course contains 13 modules, case studies, and an array of valuable insights for judicial and legal audiences on this important issue. The most recent addition to the course is a Tribal Practice section that contains information specific to tribal courts, as provided by the American Indian Law Institute and the University of New Mexico/Southwest Indian Legal Clinic. The online course can be accessed free of charge. While SJI did not fund the tribal component of this grant (due to statutory prohibitions), it demonstrates how this course continues to be relevant to a broad judicial audience.

SJI received 20 grant applications requesting a total of $1,147,684 for the 2nd quarter of FY 2012. In addition, SJI received 45 Concept Papers totaling $4,695,208 for the recent Strategic Initiatives Grants solicitation for self-represented litigation in the state courts. The Board will meet in April to finalize decisions on both grant awards for the 2nd quarter, and on the Concept Papers submitted to address self-represented litigation in the state courts.

Potential applicants are strongly encouraged to: 1) reach out to SJI with any questions before applying; 2) thoroughly review the requirements contained in the Grant Guideline; and 3) use the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) Library eCollection to research past SJI grant reports and products that are similar to their proposed project, and inform SJI on how their project builds on that work. SJI is always available to help interpret the Grant Guideline and answer questions during the grant proposal development process. All applicants will be required to detail their level of research before and during the proposal preparation phase. Additionally, all applicants will be asked to describe how their proposed project addresses one or more of SJI’s new Priority Investment Areas. Applicants will also be asked to specify performance outcomes and define how success will be measured.

SJI Grant funding remains available on a first-come, first-served, basis for grant applications that merit funding. SJI Grant Application deadlines for the remainder of FY 2012 are as follows: 3rd quarter – May 1, 2012; and 4th quarter – August 1, 2012.

The White House released the FY 2013 President’s Budget on February 13th, which includes $5,121,000 for SJI. The President and the Office of Management and Budget continue to support SJI’s mission. The funding requested will enable SJI to continue addressing issues impacting the state courts, foster innovative solutions, and share information on successful approaches nationwide. The FY 2013 President’s Budget in its entirety can be viewed online. The President’s Budget for SJI is available on the SJI website. In conjunction with the President’s Budget, SJI also submitted its detailed budget request to Congress. SJI’s budget request is available on the SJI website.

The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) Library is the official repository for all SJI grant products, including reports, curricula, media, and any documents in their final version created by SJI grant funding. Beginning in FY 2011, The NCSC Library became a centralized holding of these items, which replaced the previous requirement for SJI grantees to disseminate their final products to all 50 state court libraries.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to research previously-funded SJI grants by reviewing grant products and presenting this information in their application. A benefit of the collaboration with the NCSC Library is their convenient online searchable catalog and digital archive. The catalog contains a list of all holdings at the physical location in Williamsburg, Virginia, and the digital archive allows users to access the electronic versions.

All grantees are required to forward one hard copy and one digital copy (preferably in Adobe PDF or Microsoft Word) of their final grant product(s) to SJI. Project Grant recipients are requested to send three hard copies and one digital copy upon completion of their grant product(s). SJI makes all final grant products available to the NCSC Library for posting.