Participating in the judicial system can be traumatic and stressful. Mediation is a tool used for resolving many judicial matters, thus mediators often encounter disputants experiencing the worst time of their lives. With this in mind, Texas Dispute Resolution System™ (TDRS) began a process to enhance their mediators’ skills and knowledge when engaging disputants during their traumatic journey. Unfortunately, this nationwide search identified very few resources. As such, TDRS endeavored to fill this void.
With extensive collaboration with the National Center of State Courts and the generous funding from the State Justice Institute, TDRS provided a national 6-hour webinar in July 2021 with dynamic speakers from across the United States. The knowledge gleaned from these speakers was instrumental in developing the “Mental Health and Mediation Best Practices Handbook”, a first of its kind. This Handbook is now available to all mediators with the intent to continue assisting mediators in improving and building their toolboxes. The handbook is available online via the National Center for State Courts website at Mediation and Mental Health Best Practices Handbook – Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) – National Center for State Courts (oclc.org). TDRS welcomes feedback and ideas on how to expand this educational resource. Emails may be sent to odr@lubbockcounty.gov.
April 1, 2022
The State Justice Institute awarded a key grant to the District of Columbia Courts’ Office of Court Interpreting Services to launch the Courts’ Interpreter Registry and the first-ever Amharic Court Interpreter Certification Examination. These initiatives demonstrate the Courts’ commitment to increase access for Limited English Proficient (LEP) and deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals to the judicial …
March 1, 2022
In November 2020, the Family Center of the Conciliation Court (FCCC) within the Arizona Superior Court in Pima County, was awarded a Pandemic Response and Recovery grant from the State Justice Institute (SJI) to implement the Court’s vision of converting what was an employee-led, in-person parent education course to an on-demand, online, and self-paced e-Learning …
February 4, 2022
SJI awarded grant funding to the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia (“Court”) to produce a jury orientation video for its unified court system. The video replaced a 30-year-old video featuring actor Raymond Burr. The Court drafted, produced, and disseminated a timeless video to be used during jury orientation to explain the basics of …
January 3, 2022
We have long known that family matters challenge a court system that assumes people will be represented by attorneys and that proceedings should be adversarial. The Cady Initiative for Family Justice Reform (formerly “Family Justice Initiative”) exists to guide courts towards improved outcomes for families, while managing costs and controlling delays. First funded by the …
December 1, 2021
Twelve courts from around the country have completed a six-month pilot as part of LaGratta Consulting’s Court Voices Project, where they asked both court staff and court users for their feedback on courts’ pandemic responses. While most of the pilot courts had little to no experience collecting feedback from court users in the past, all …
November 1, 2021
The Franklin County (Ohio) Municipal Court has a Self-Help Resource Center (the Center) which works daily to improve the quality of court filings filed by pro se litigants, increase access to the justice system for individuals who cannot afford attorneys, and provide a positive point of contact between the Court and the community. The Center …