Since the mid-1990s, state courts have implemented various strategies in an effort to ensure access to justice for limited English proficiency (LEP) individuals. Most state courts provide foreign language interpreters in criminal cases, and more are providing interpreters in civil, domestic relations, and other court proceedings. Several factors have pushed state courts to establish policies …
Read MoreThe SJI Board of Directors met on April 18, 2016, at the Supreme Court of Kentucky in Frankfort to make decisions on quarterly grant applications and awarded a total of twenty-one (21) new grants. Two (2) Strategic Initiatives Grants were awarded: support to the Conference of Chief Justice/Conference of State Court Administrators (CCJ/COSCA) for the …
Read MoreWith support from SJI, the Council for Court Excellence (CCE) released Jury Service Revisited: Upgrades for the 21st Century, a comprehensive review of the jury system in Washington, D.C., at an event hosted by Arnold & Porter (SJI-14-T-086). The report builds on the Council’s 1998 seminal study on jury service. At the event, Professor Andrew Fergusson …
Read MoreOn October 8 and 9, 2015, teams from around the country came together in New York City for the National Summit on Human Trafficking and the State Courts hosted by then-Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, with key support from SJI (SJI-15-P-029). The teams were made up of chief justices, court administrators, prosecutors, defense attorneys, advocates, and …
Read MoreSJI continued its grant support to the National Association for Court Management (NACM) in 2016, which ensured that the educational sessions of NACM’s Midyear and Annual meetings would be available online (SJI-15-N-030). New this year was the inclusion of live streaming, in addition to post-conference content being available through the NACM website. Live streaming is …
Read MoreWith support from SJI, the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) and the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA) have formed a National Task Force on Fines, Fees and Bail Practices to address the ongoing impact that court fines and fees and bail practices have on communities. One of the aims of the nationally–led initiative is …
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