Category: News

Please join us in welcoming the following new NASJE members:

• Ms. Pam Jordan Anderson, Senior Attorney, Florida Supreme Court, Office of the State Court Administrator, Tallahassee, FL
• Ms. Julie Binter, Training Specialist, Arizona Supreme Court, Administrative Office of the Court, Phoenix, AZ
• Ms. Marian K. Chavez, Operations Specialist for Educ. Support, University of New Mexico, Inst. for Public Law Edu. Center, Albuquerque, NM
• Dr. Rasheed T. Kerriem, Law Student, California Southern University, Baltimore, MD
• Mr. Randall Sarosdy, Executive Director, Texas Center for the Judiciary, Austin, TX
• Ms. Chelsea Adrian Woodall, Senior Multimedia Designer, National Center for State Courts, Williamsburg, VA

Since the last NASJE News a few exciting things have happened.

Thanks to the work of the Newsletter and Technology Committees, our newsletter website has a new look and feel. The site is easier to maintain and update, along with providing NASJE members with more resources. It is still, however, a work in progress. Please check it out and send in your thoughts.

In the future, we will be developing a member-only site where NASJE members can find or share resources.

Another exciting project is the curricula for judicial branch educators. Project lead, Christy Tull (OH), and consultant, Karen Thorson (MT), continue to work tirelessly with the Curriculum Committee on this project. Back in 2002, NASJE appointed a committee to develop core competencies for judicial branch educators. The Committee submitted those competencies to the Board in 2004, and 11 competencies for judicial branch educators were approved. In 2010 NASJE received a State Justice Institute (SJI) grant to begin working on curricula covering those competencies.

The Board recently reviewed and approved the curricula completed in three areas: Competency #2–Developing and Implementing Curriculum and Program Development; Competency #4–Faculty Development; and Competency #9–Leadership, Visioning, Organizational Planning, and Building and Maintaining Support for Judicial Branch Education. The next step is to showcase these three curricula at the next NASJE Conference this July.

The work isn’t finished. In the future, the Curriculum Committee is tentatively going to begin work on four more competencies. Competency #3–Instructional Design, Competency # 8–Human Resources Management, Competency #10–Needs Assessment, and Competency # 11–Evaluation.

As you can see, exciting things are happening. If you are interested in becoming involved, don’t hesitate to contact me at judith.anderson@courts.wa.gov. If you know of individuals, who are not members of NASJE and think they should be, give them the link to our website where they can apply online.

Until next time, stay happy, healthy, and safe.

Director’s Message from Susan Morley

Dear Southeast Region Members,

As promised, this Fall newsletter is designed to update you and continue the tradition established last year by Marty Sullivan. Here in Florida, we are welcoming the end of hurricane season and, like many of you, preparing for the orientation of the many judges elected earlier this month! The latest NASJE News includes an interesting article on training strategies for new judges – and also has a new (interactive) look. A link to this resource is provided below, as well an update on the JBE curriculum development project.

If you attended the Fall Webinar sponsored by NASJE’s Western Region, you know that it was a terrific opportunity for those of us who missed the Annual Conference to learn about technologies that should become part of our education programming. We would like your feedback about possible topics for a Southeast Region webinar, as requested below.

Finally, I’m pleased to report that plans are in progress for a second annual mid-year, regional meeting for our Southeast members. Please see the possible dates below and respond at your earliest convenience, to let us know whether you can join us.

I will look forward to hearing from you, and wish you happy holidays and all the best as your 2010 program year concludes!

Sincerely,
Susan Morley, Southeast Regional Director
morleys@flcourts.org | 850.922.5105

NASJE National Update
Two exciting NASJE projects are complete or nearing completion this month. First, thanks to the work of Phil Schopick, Editor of the NASJE News, with the Newsletter and Website and Technology Committees (and Steve Cicero), the NASJE News has a new look. The updated layout is based on the “WordPress” shareware demonstrated at last Spring’s Western Region Web Conference, a format which not only will facilitate your searches of archived information, but also permits reader comments. Please take a minute to visit the newsletter page at https://nasje.org/ , and let Phil know what you think.

NASJE’s Curriculum Design Committee is also moving toward completion of its first group of curriculum designs for judicial branch educators. Based on NASJE’s 11 Core Competencies for JBE, this three-year project is being funded by a grant from the State Justice Institute. This month, the Board is scheduled to review the Committee’s drafts of the first three selected competency areas, which include:

• Developing and Implementing Curriculum and Program Development
• Faculty Development
• Leadership, Visioning, Organizational Planning, and Building and Maintaining Support for Judicial Branch Education

Watch for details regarding these important new resources soon!

Webinar Update
The October 22 “Emerging Technologies and the Future of Law: Application to Judicial Education” web event sponsored by NASJE’s Western Region was well-attended, and generated lots of good discussion. Unfortunately, due to the technical arrangements utilized for this particular session, we are unable to make a recording available at this time. We will continue to work on this, but in the meantime would like to explore the possibility of holding a webinar or two for our region this year. Do you have an idea for a particular topic? Would you like to see a “repeat” of the October 22 presentation? Please take a moment to call or email me if you have suggestions for a 2011 web conference.

Mid-year Southeast Meeting?
A number of you have expressed interest in holding an in-person meeting of our region’s members again this year. I am happy to report that Wally Lowery, Alabama’s Assistant Director of the Education and Planning, has once again offered to facilitate this by combining our event with programming they already have scheduled. Thanks to our Alabama members, we would not need to secure meeting space or a hotel contract in order to hold a mid-year meeting, and attendee expenses would be limited to travel, lodging, and food. This is a great opportunity to re-connect, especially for those of us who missed the NASJE Summer conference.

Three potential dates and locations are available to us:

• March 3-4 – Huntsville
• April 7-8 – Birmingham
• May 5-6 – Mobile

Before we continue planning, we need to know whether members will be able to attend and are available on any of these dates. Please click this link (password: nasje) to indicate dates when you would be available, or considerations that will prevent your attendance (schedule, budget, other) this year. This form also includes space for your suggested topics, speakers and meeting activities.

Please submit your response by December 6….and thank you to our Alabama members for their generous offer!!

MARCH 2-3, 2011 in SAN FRANCISCO

Eight Informative Education Sessions

• Judicial Branch Leadership Education Roundtable
• Innovative Products Poster Session
• Tips to Engage Learners
• Incorporating Fairness Topics into Your Courses
• Lights, Camera, Action! (Studio Tour)
• Evidence Based Sentencing Curriculum
• PowerPoint: Beyond Bullets
• Experiential Learning

Registration fee for the conference is $40.00 which covers materials, breakfast, lunch, and an afternoon break for each day of the conference. The optional off-site dinner at Farmer Brown’s is not included in the registration fee. Participants in the Experiential Learning session will have an option of visiting a local museum and will be responsible for the entry fee.

Final Agenda and online registration details will be e-mailed the first week of January 2011.

by Jessie Halladay, The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky) — originally published October 29, 2010

Ashley Rigsby, an intern at Family Scholar House, knows domestic-violence victims face difficult choices, but during a training session on Thursday, she got a first-hand taste as she took on the persona of 32-year-old Danielle Lutton.

The training, called “In Her Shoes,” asks participants to follow the life of a real victim and make choices they face. In Rigsby’s case, she followed Danielle’s story as she sought custody of her daughter in court, sought counseling from clergy and eventually ended up living with her mother and seeking therapy.

Participants in the training, hosted by the Domestic Violence Prevention Coordinating Council, drew cards to find out their victim’s story — a woman with kids or a single person in a troubled relationship. They then followed the story to stations set up around the room that represented various options for victims, such as court, police, family and friends, the clergy, support groups or the funeral home.

Participants were often asked to choose between two scenarios for their victim.

“It was confusing to know what to do,” Rigsby said. “There are so many options, and it’s hard to know what’s right. It certainly gives you a better understanding of some of the mental processes (victims) have to go through.”

“The Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts bought the training program in 2009 and has been running it at the request of judges and circuit court clerks across the state, as well as going into schools,” said judicial branch educator Brit Linstrom, who facilitates the training.

“It’s very effective,” she said.

Many of the people participating in the program have some experience working with domestic-violence victims. But the exercise of trying to think as a victim would when making decisions was helpful, many said.

Carol Cobb, co-chair of the council, spent many years in the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office prosecuting cases that sometimes involved domestic-violence victims. Despite all that experience, she said as she made choices in her simulation, she didn’t foresee the end result of her persona — dying at the hands of her abuser.

“The steps reminded me of many women I’ve worked with,” Cobb said, adding that the training provides valuable insight into the thinking of victims who are trying to end the abuse.

The training “helps you understand how difficult each decision is,” she said.

Chris Locke, who works for the United Way, said he was impressed by the training because it was realistic and gave a good glimpse into the thought processes of victims of all types.

“In that moment you pick the best thing you think you should do,” Locke said. “In some cases, it’s the decision between two tough choices.”

Reporter Jessie Halladay can be reached at (502) 582-4081.

Another story about the In Her Shoes is available at http://www.wave3.com/story/13405725/judges-police-lawyers-work-to-understand-domestic-violence

by Justin Story, The Daily News, Bowling Green (KY) — originally published December 2, 2010

Only one county has seen more of its court cases require the assistance of a court interpreter than Warren County, according to the person who heads court interpreting services for the state.

Ervin Dimeny, manager of the Administrative Office of the Courts Court Interpreting Services, revealed this fact during remarks made about the service at the Bowling Green Noon Rotary Club’s meeting Wednesday at Bowling Green Country Club.

Dimeny said that about 35,000 cases statewide each year require the services of a language interpreter – about 80 percent of those cases see the use of a Spanish-language interpreter and another 10 percent require a sign language interpreter for the deaf or hard of hearing.

“Warren County is the second-busiest county in the commonwealth, especially for languages other than Spanish,” Dimeny said.

A native of Romania who defected to Hungary in 1989 to escape what was then a repressive Communist regime, Dimeny studied at the Hungarian Baptist Theological Seminary before immigrating to the United States in 1995.

He became a U.S. citizen in 1999 and earned a law degree from the University of Louisville.

Dimeny now oversees a program that provides language interpreters in court proceedings for people who do not speak English as a first language or who are deaf or hard of hearing at no cost to those requiring the service.

“Court interpreter services is a very important aspect of the judicial process,” Dimeny said. “In a lot of other countries, you’d be out of luck if you didn’t speak the language.”

It costs about $1.78 million each year to provide the program, a cost that has risen over the past decade as more immigrants have settled in Kentucky.

“Ten years ago the cost of the service was about ($600,000) or $700,000,” Dimeny said.

The program includes 11 full-time Spanish interpreters, one of whom is based in Bowling Green.

Dimeny said the majority of court interpreters are used for defendants in criminal cases, though the service is also employed for civil, family and other court proceedings.

There are three kinds of court interpreters – simultaneous interpreters who translate speech as it is being spoken, consecutive interpreters who translate during pauses in speech and interpreters who offer a sight translation of court documents.

Keeping up with an increasingly multilingual population has proved to be a challenge due both to state budgetary concerns and ongoing efforts to find enough certified court interpreters to serve the population.

Kentucky is helped, though, by being part of a national consortium that has access to a database of interpreters who can assist those who speak more obscure languages.

A recent murder case in Warren County involved a defendant who spoke a rare Pacific island dialect, and the court interpreter who assisted him was brought into the case from California.

Dimeny said the Bowling Green International Center has been instrumental in helping locate interpreters for court cases in Warren County as well.

The state is looking into additional ways to enable people requiring court interpreters to have access to the service, Dimeny said.

“We’re in the process of equipping courtrooms with video remote interpreter equipment through a grant, and there is a pilot project to provide interpreter services to domestic violence petitioners,” Dimeny said.