Author: Michelle Lana

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.

The recently released report, WINGS Tips: State Replication Guide for Working Interdisciplinary Networks of Guardianship Stakeholders is now available. Produced by the American Bar Association/Commission on Law and Aging for the National Guardianship Network, this publication provides a “How-To” guide that details initiating, developing, and sustaining successful stakeholder networks, comprised of probate judges, attorneys and counselors, disability rights coalitions, advocacy groups for the aging, and other key stakeholders in elder law cases (SJI-12-N-157).

The report is an answer to the inquiries from many constituents present at the 2011 Third National Guardianship Summit, and addresses the recommendation that coordinated state-court community partnerships be established and implemented. WINGS, currently active in seven states (IN, MO, NY, OH, OR, TX, and UT) work collaboratively to achieve their goals, and include the following characteristics:

• are ongoing and sustainable;
• are broad-based and interdisciplinary, including non-professionals;
• are problem solving in nature;
• look primarily to changes in practice, and extend beyond legislative changes;
• start with solutions that are short-term to generate momentum;
• depend on “mutually reinforcing activities” of stakeholders, and foster trust and communication;
• include a focus on rights and person-centered planning;
• welcome public input, and are transparent to the public;
• make continuous adaptations;
• see themselves as part of a national network.

The report goes on to describe ten steps to launch and maintain a WINGS group, and online resources from existing statewide WINGS.

 

SJI recently released the Grant Guideline for FY 2015. 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. FY 2015 Deadlines for Project, Technical Assistance, and Curriculum Adaptation Grants are as follows: 1st Quarter – November 1, 2014; 2nd Quarter – February 1, 2015; 3rd Quarter – May 1, 2015; and, 4th Quarter – August 1, 2015.

The Board met on September 5, 2014, to make decisions on quarterly grant applications and awarded a total of 15 grants. Two (2) Strategic Initiatives Grants (SIG) were approved: 1) support for the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) to establish a national call center that will assist state courts in providing Virtual Remote Interpreting (VRI) services. The project will result in a national VRI capability available to all state courts that will expand access and reduce costs; and 2) assistance for a partnership between the Center for Public Policy Studies (CPPS) and the NCSC to address the impact of unaccompanied immigrant children in the state courts. CPPS and NCSC will develop a step-by-step action guide, training, and webinar on this critical issue.

Two (2) Project Grants were approved: support to the National Guardianship Network’s (NGN) efforts to continue reforming adult guardianship practice in the state courts through its Working Interdisciplinary of Guardian Stakeholders (WINGS) initiative; and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) to hold a national courts and the military summit that will convene key stakeholders at the intersection of military justice and juvenile and family courts to develop a national agenda to improve the coordination of services for service members, veterans, and their families.

Eight (8) Technical Assistance (TA) Grants were approved, including: strategic planning projects for the 10th Judicial Circuit Court of Michigan and the 4th Judicial District Court of Louisiana; a municipal and traffic court consolidation project for the Orleans Parish, Louisiana Municipal Court; case management system planning and assessment projects for the Missouri Office of the State Courts Administrator and the Superior Court of the U.S. Virgin Islands; a caseflow and calendaring management review of the Superior Court of Santa Barbara County, California; personnel and procedures review for the 4th Judicial District Court of Nebraska; and a courthouse security review and assessment for the Vermont Judiciary.

Three (3) Curriculum Adaptation & Training (CAT) Grants were approved, including: support for the 2015 Nebraska Children’s Summit; assistance to American University for a project to improve access to justice for immigrant crime victims through judicial education; and judicial education on human trafficking issues, including a focus on gangs, for the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ).

An article in the recent 2014 Trends in State Courts publication, from the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), focuses on the influx of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) in the state courts. The article, authored by David Slayton, Administrative Director of the Courts at the Texas Office of Court Administration, examines three critical areas: 1) the growth of unaccompanied minors traveling to the United States; 2) defining Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) and how it is conferred, as well as its implications; and, 3) the overall impact of the unaccompanied minor case influx on state courts. Although brief, the feature gives specificity to the process, case types involving SIJS, and an array of demographic and referral data compiled from a network of federal sources and impacted areas. The article addresses how these cases quickly extend beyond border states, and the responsibilities of parties and agencies involved in these cases. The article, titled, How the Unaccompanied Minor Crisis Is Affecting the State Courts, is available online as a webpage designated for this issue. Additional information is contained on the webpage, including a webinar, offered by the NCSC’s Institute for Court Management (ICM), which had over 200 participants during the live session, and continues to be viewed as a recording.

The NCSC Model Time Standards for Appellate Courts are now available online. The project to revise time to disposition standards for appellate court cases, was funded by SJI, and was an initiative of the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) and the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA).

Steered by a project committee of ten, including both current and former judges from different states, attorneys, and participants from the Conference of Chief Judges of the State Courts of Appeal (CCJSCA), the National Conference of Appellate Court Clerks (NCACC), and the American Bar Association (ABA), this 28-page report details history, need, structure, and application of model time standards for courts of last resort that are consistent with applicable laws, best practices, and guidelines regarding access to justice. The standards include in-depth analysis of data and surveying of appellate court judges across the U.S.

The project specifically focused on:

• case initiating events;
• explanation of discrete interim stages;
• publishing the results of time standards;
• benchmarking; and,
• standards for interim stages of an appeal.

In addition to the provision of a time standards model, the final report also emphasized the importance of measuring established time standards and resources that will aid in implementation. A full copy of the time standards can be downloaded from the NCSC Library’s e-collection (Digital Archive).