Category: News

During the December 10, 2012 meeting, the Board approved a $500,000 Strategic Initiatives Grant (SIG) to the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) to address limited English proficiency (LEP) issues. The NCSC’s newly established Language Access Services Section is uniquely positioned to provide direct technical assistance to state courts on this critical issue. Most recently, the NCSC has worked with courts across New England, assessing their language access services and helping them find ways to share interpreters on a regional level. The NCSC also assisted the Tennessee Judiciary in conducting a summit of stakeholders to plan for providing language access services at no cost in civil cases throughout the state. Under a grant from CISCO, the NCSC is developing standards and best practices for remote video interpreting.

As part of these efforts, the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) and the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA) created the Language Access Advisory Committee (LAAC) to increase the visibility of this work, and provide a better means of addressing policy issues impacting each state. LAAC is composed of COSCA members, with several state level language access coordinators as technical advisors. LAAC will provide direction to the work of the NCSC Language Access Services Section that will coordinate all LEP work and policy.

For this SJI-funded project, the NCSC will:

• Assist states through CCJ, COSCA, and the LAAC in developing consistent national standards for increased ability to share resources, including the ability to share interpreters, tests, and training opportunities;
• Assist in the creation of regional and/or national databases of interpreter resources, and increase capacity through remote interpreting;
• Conduct state and local court needs assessments, including levering technology to improve business processes and performance measurement;
• Assist state and local courts with developing LEP plans, including assistance in determining when interpreter resources are required, and the necessary resources, as a part of case management;
• Develop model training for judges and court staff on cultural and interpreter use issues;
• Develop instructions and bench cards for judges to explain to courtroom participants how interpreters are best used in the courtroom;
• Disseminate information about the effective ways to respond to, and manage, the many facets of LEP individuals and their impact on the state courts;
• Evaluate gaps with meeting DOJ guidelines, and establish a plan of action to address those gaps; and,
• Similar to what courts have done with Americans with Disabilities (ADA) issues and security threats, establish a clearinghouse to collect data on LEP complaint in order to assist courts in addressing these issues.

The Board met on December 10, 2012 to make decisions on quarterly grant applications and awarded a total of 15 grants.

Four (4) Project Grants were awarded, including: the Maryland Judiciary to determine the cost/benefits of various forms of ADR in the state; the Supreme Court of West Virginia to conduct a workload assessment.; the National Association for Court Management (NACM) to deliver educational content addressing all six SJI Priority Investment Areas. The 19th Judicial District of York County, Pennsylvania also received support to establish a Self-Represented Litigation Center.

Six (6) Technical Assistance (TA) Grants were approved, including: a resource center for the Delaware Justice of the Peace Court; development of core competencies for courts by the Texas Office of Court Administration; establishment of a Louisiana court interpreter program; an integrated justice information strategic plan in Calaveras county, California; and, strategic plans in the 21st Judicial Circuit of Missouri and the Mohave County Superior Court in Arizona.

Six (6) Curriculum Adaptation & Training (CAT) Grants were approved, including: support for the Essential Skills for Appellate Judges program provided by the National Judicial College (NJC); customization of a new judge self-study online curriculum in Utah; statewide training for teams of judges and court administrators in Illinois; essential skills training to San Mateo Superior Court in California; and, delivery of the Institute for Court Management Certified Court Manager (CCM) curricula to Orange County Superior Court in California, and the Virginia Supreme Court.

The next deadline for grant applications is February 1, 2013 (2nd quarter).

SJI received 19 grant applications requesting a total of $979,640 for the 1st quarter of FY 2013. The Board will meet on December 10, 2012 to make decisions on grant awards for the 1st quarter.

In October 2012, SJI announced Human Trafficking and the State Courts as a new Priority Investment Area. In addition, SJI released a call for concept papers for a Strategic Initiatives Grant(s) on this critical issue. In response, SJI received 5 concept papers totaling $1,373,775.

Grant applicants are encouraged to address one or more Priority Investment Areas with their proposed projects. In addition, grant applicants must delineate specific outcomes, and define how success will be measured. Beginning in FY 2013, applicants must research prior work on the issue they are trying to address using the SJI website and the National Center for State Courts Library and Digital Archive, where all SJI products produced after 2010 by grantees are archived. Applicants are also encouraged to research any other available sources of information not contained on the SJI or NCSC Library websites.

SJI Grant funding remains available on a first-come, first-served, basis for grant applications that merit funding. Deadlines for the remainder of FY 2013 are as follows: 2nd quarter – February 1, 2013; 3rd quarter – May 1, 2013; and 4th quarter – August 1, 2013.

A recently released white paper from the Council of Chief Judges of the State Courts of Appeal (CCJSCA) titled, The Role of State Intermediate Appellate Courts: Principles for Adapting to Change, joins the list of SJI-supported resources available to the state appellate courts (SJI-10-T-152). The paper describes how CCJSCA and the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) studied the evolution of the role played by intermediate appellate courts (IACs) and their core functions. The study also examined the impact of the fiscal crisis on the IACs, and how they have adapted to those challenges.

The white paper is available on the SJI website.

Ensuring Language Access Outside the Courtroom: Training Judicial Employees, is a new SJI funded project (SJI-12-N-156) of the New Mexico Judiciary. With the support of the Conference of Chief Justices/Conference of State Court Administrators (CCJ/COSCA), seven state courts have joined the New Mexico Center for Language Access (NMCLA), a project of the University of New Mexico-Los Alamos, to develop and distribute a high-quality, affordable language access training and qualification program for state court employees. The goal of this training is to improve the quality of language access services for limited English proficient (LEP) and non-English speaking individuals.

The final product of this collaborative effort will be the Language Access Basic Training Suite (LABT Suite) for state courts, an online/downloadable and easily accessible package that includes the following modules:

1. Theory – an introduction to language access for all court employees;
2. Practice – detailed, language-specific training for bilingual employees;
3. Skills Assessment – optional evaluation of bilingual employees’ language skills and vocabulary.

The LABT Suite will focus on language access outside the courtroom, providing language access training for all judicial employees with specialized training for bilingual employees. It is being designed to be both affordable and easily accessible by court personnel, and will provide an option for measuring bilingual employees’ language skills and vocabulary. The intent is to develop a strong basic training curriculum, which can be customized and easily updated/revised by NMCLA on behalf of state courts nationwide. Collaborating courts, in addition to New Mexico, include Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, New Jersey, and North Carolina.

For more information about this project, please contact Pam Sánchez, Statewide Program Manager for Language Access Services at aocpjs@nmcourts.gov.

Nearly 300 court leaders from 49 states, three territories, and the District of Columbia, concluded the first ever Nation Summit on Language Access and the Courts in Houston, Texas, October 1-3, 2012. The Summit focused on developing solutions to improve access to justice for litigants with Limited English Proficiency (LEP). The Summit enabled state court leaders to share successful strategies and evidence-based practices, plan system improvements, and discuss ways to pursue greater consistency across the states on policies related to court interpretation. A Summit website is available that includes the Summit program, speaker bios, and videos conference and events section. A National Call to Action report will be issued on the Summit’s outcomes and strategies.

The SJI Board of Directors has established Human Trafficking and the State Courts as a new Priority Investment Area for grant funding. Human Trafficking manifests itself in a variety of court settings, including prostitution and drug cases where the individual may be a trafficking victim, child thieves who are part of trafficker-controlled organizations, and abused and neglected children in a variety of settings. In addition, human trafficking goes beyond immigrants who are in the United States legally or illegally, but also includes U.S. citizens who are victims.

Since 1994, Congress has enacted a series of laws addressing human trafficking, most notably the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). State courts are beginning to see human trafficking cases under state laws, as 47 states have passed criminalization statutes for human trafficking. However, the state courts are finding themselves without the knowledge, expertise, processes, and basic infrastructure needed to address this issue. SJI is interested in future grant applications that address the challenges state courts are facing on this issue. SJI recently announced a request for Concept Papers on Human Trafficking and the State Courts, which are due by November 1, 2012.

The SJI Priority Investment Areas were established in FY 2011 to replace the former Special Interest Categories, and apply to all grant types (i.e. Project, Technical Assistance, and Curriculum Adaptation Grants). SJI encourages all potential grant applicants to consider projects addressing one or more of the Priority Investment Areas.

The SJI Board of Directors has established Human Trafficking and the State Courts as a new Priority Investment Area for grant funding. Human Trafficking manifests itself in a variety of court settings, including prostitution and drug cases where the individual may be a trafficking victim, child thieves who are part of trafficker-controlled organizations, and abused and neglected children in a variety of settings. In addition, human trafficking goes beyond immigrants who are in the United States legally or illegally, but also includes U.S. citizens who are victims.

Since 1994, Congress has enacted a series of laws addressing human trafficking, most notably the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). State courts are beginning to see human trafficking cases under state laws, as 47 states have passed criminalization statutes for human trafficking. However, the state courts are finding themselves without the knowledge, expertise, processes, and basic infrastructure needed to address this issue. SJI is interested in future grant applications that address the challenges state courts are facing on this issue. SJI recently announced a request for Concept Papers on Human Trafficking and the State Courts, which are due by November 1, 2012.

The SJI Priority Investment Areas were established in FY 2011 to replace the former Special Interest Categories, and apply to all grant types (i.e. Project, Technical Assistance, and Curriculum Adaptation Grants). SJI encourages all potential grant applicants to consider projects addressing one or more of the Priority Investment Areas.

Nearly 300 court leaders from 49 states, three territories, and the District of Columbia, concluded the first ever Nation Summit on Language Access and the Courts in Houston, Texas, October 1-3, 2012. The Summit focused on developing solutions to improve access to justice for litigants with Limited English Proficiency (LEP). The Summit enabled state court leaders to share successful strategies and evidence-based practices, plan system improvements, and discuss ways to pursue greater consistency across the states on policies related to court interpretation. A Summit website is available that includes the Summit program, speaker bios, and videos conference and events section. A National Call to Action report will be issued on the Summit’s outcomes and strategies.

The Executive Session for State Court Leaders in the 21st Century (SJI-07-I-203, and SJI-11-I-064) brought together state court leaders including chief justices, judges, and court administrators, as well as key stakeholders to address an array of issues impacting the state courts, including:

• adapting to the budget crisis and leadership in times of limited resources;
• identification of essential principles for effective court governance;
• the tension between problem solving and decision making;
• the challenges social media pose to court legitimacy;
• how courts defend themselves from political attack; and,
• the concept of chief justices as civic leaders.

The SJI and Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance (DOJ/BJA) funded Executive Session recently released the fourth and fifth papers from the series. Additionally, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) has created a Vimeo Feed that includes introductory videos explaining the purpose and significance of the papers. A brief explanation of each paper with a link follows:

A Case for Court Governance Principles
In this report, Utah Chief Justice Christine Durham and Utah State Court Administrator Dan Becker describe the limits to what structural changes like centralization can accomplish. Recognizing that court culture inherently stresses independence and self-interest, the authors propose eleven unifying principles to guide states as they seek to improve court performance.

Herding Lions: Shared Leadership of State Trial Courts
Retired Arizona Judge Barbara Mundell and Texas Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson put forward an approach based on the recognition that all courts within a state have a collective responsibility for the quality of justice. They urge that leadership be shared across the different levels of court structure and that local innovation be encouraged and, where effective, replicated statewide.

Opinions as the Voice of the Court: How State Supreme Courts Can Communicate Effectively and Promote Procedural Fairness
This paper discusses the nature of, and trends in, the formation of state supreme court opinions and the methods by which opinions are communicated to the press, the public, members of the bar, and online communities. It considers current practice in light of a field in social psychology called procedural fairness—a practical theory that explains what makes it likely that people are satisfied with and comply with decisions by authorities, such as judges.

Courts Are Conversations: An Argument for Increased Engagement by Court Leaders
Social media expert Garrett Graff explains the true significance of the arrival of social media as it alters the expectations and habits of American society. He advises state court leaders that they “must not only learn how to communicate with new tools; they must also envision new means of judicial engagement with the public through the new social media that can further advance the legitimacy of courts in a democratic society.”

Juror and Jury Use of New Media: A Baseline Exploration
NCSC staff members Paula Hannaford-Agor, David Rottman, and Nicole Waters offer insights into the current and likely future use of new media by jurors at all stages of the process. The project explored the impact of the new media on jurors and jury decision-making as a basis for recommending steps to reconcile new media use with the adversarial process.