Courthouses are typically dignified, formal places, often with armed guards and security equipment at the entrances. Judges wear robes and sit behind raised benches to convey their authority. The judicial branch is responsible for adhering to constitutionally and statutorily mandated… Read more »
Editor’s Note: This article was published in the Judges’ Journal, volume 57, number 2, spring 2018. © 2018 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or… Read more »
Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on Melissa Eisler’s Mindful Minutes, a blog about how to live a mindful life, despite having a demanding schedule. Have you ever had a short fuse, overreacted, or lost your cool in a stressful… Read more »
The American civil justice system is facing a reckoning. There are real concerns today about how civil justice is delivered in the United States. Faith in the system is thinning. Much of the population lacks access to legal services, despite… Read more »
The ordinary administration of criminal and civil justice . . . contributes, more than any other circumstance, to impressing upon the minds of the people affection, esteem, and reverence towards the government. Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 17, in Clinton Rossiter… Read more »
In 2018 the Supreme Court of Ohio’s Dispute Resolution Section and the court’s 21-member statewide Commission on Dispute Resolution pursued initiatives consistent with the National Center for State Courts’ poll reflecting that, not surprisingly, Americans prefer to avoid taking their… Read more »
In the winter 2016 edition of the Court Manager, Kent Batty challenged us to a discussion of Ernie Friesen’s classic “Purposes of Courts.”1 In light of the evolving role of courts, it is indeed time that these Purposes be reviewed… Read more »
A Call to Action Paramount to the foundation of American government is a three-branch system, which specifically works to balance the power of each branch to protect the Constitution and the rights afforded to citizens of the United States. But… Read more »
Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in Court News Ohio, a service of the Ohio Supreme Court and Ohio Government Telecommunications. Technology pervades our lives. We stay connected on smartphones, research everything online, talk to far-away relatives over video, check… Read more »
Although a courthouse is the place where justice is served, it is also the place where people may experience high levels of stress or emotional upheaval. An individual may be dealing with a variety of traumatic experiences leading up to… Read more »
Close contact with trauma survivors is an element of employment that court employees experience regularly. However, most employees, and even court managers, give little thought to the effects this contact may have on their personal and professional lives. Until recently,… Read more »
In 2014 the Orange County Superior Court developed a request for proposal to identify a vendor to provide mass notification services. In late 2015 the court implemented a fully functioning mass notification system, called Court Alert. The court has eight… Read more »
Consider the recent focus on the need to change the manner in which courts deal with litigants. Examples include: new thinking on the use and role of fines, fees, and bail assessments; initiatives that change how courts handle cases (civil,… Read more »
It is time to improve the way we communicate information. In 2015 the Conference of State Court Administrators and the Conference of Chief Justices promulgated Joint Resolution #5, calling for the “aspirational goal of 100 percent access to effective assistance… Read more »
“My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.” —Thich Nhat Hanh Under the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution, a person accused in… Read more »
So, you work for a court. It may be a small court with one judge in a rural city. It may be a large court with 60 judges in a major metropolitan city. The work seems to go far beyond… Read more »
Cherie Garofalo A Season of Firsts Cherie Garofalo is the deputy court executive officer in the Superior Court of California in San Bernardino. San Bernardino County has a population of 2.1 million people and is the largest county by geographic… Read more »
Over the years, I’ve had a number of court employees share their feelings about management. A recurring theme, often by those who have to clock in daily, has been resentment over performance evaluations by supervisors who do not perform the… Read more »
In Rafa: My Story, Rafael Nadal discusses his final pregame ritual before squaring off against Roger Federer: As important as all the preparations that went before, was to look up, scan the perimeter of the stadium, and search for my… Read more »
Chances are, you’ve had more than a passing conversation about online dispute resolution (ODR, for short) within the last year. Maybe you’re investigating ways to implement ODR and looking for signs that the technology is beyond the major pitfalls of… Read more »
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