Greetings fellow court professionals!
Take a little time to enjoy this issue’s articles. We look back at the Top Trends of 2020 and consider ways to ensure that competencies gained from training are maintained as part of professional development. Our regular ”Management Musings” column is a good read to help keep you grounded. This issue’s ethics piece considers the fairness of pandemic leave policies, and we’ll also learn the outcome of a study about how best to reach self-represented litigants using online tools.
As we look back at 2020 and the events of the first weeks of 2021, it is apparent that the world around us is ever-changing. Pandemics, racial justice, elections, and politics have dominated the headlines. Over the din of this past year, some have forgotten the lessons we were taught in civics. Discourse is much preferred to acrimony. To be sure, feeling passionate about an issue is commendable, but discussion and deliberation is the way forward. In all of this, the Rule of Law is as important now as it has ever been. Our courts and the court professionals who serve them are fundamental to the administration of justice. If discussion does not provide a conflict solution, it is in courts where dissent and discord can be resolved. So, as you move forward in 2021, please take heed of the life lesson from self-help author Karen Salmansohn, “Be so busy loving your life that you have no time for hate, regret or fear.” Let’s hope that the new year brings tidings of positive change so that we can love life, but don’t wait on the world to bring you that positive change. Be the positive change that our world needs.
Please enjoy this latest edition of the Court Manager and carry on being the awesome court professionals you are!
