Volume 25, No. 4 January 2015 

E-SJI NEWS SJI NEWS

In this Issue 

Page 1 

Human Trafficking and the State Courts: 

Update on Activities 

Find Exclusive 

SJI Content on 

Facebook and 

Twitter

For more content from the recent SJI Board meeting, important national resource announcements, and partner updates, look 

no further than the SJI Facebook

and Twitter pages. 

SJI established human trafficking as a Priority Investment Area in FY 2013. This led to the creation 

of the Human Trafficking and the State Courts Collaborative, consisting of the Center for Public Policy 

Studies (CPPS); Center for Court Innovation (CCI); 

National Judicial College (NJC); National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ), Legal Momentum; 

and the National Council of Family and Juvenile 

Court Judges (NCJFCJ). The HT Collaborative has 

been engaged in numerous activities to enhance state 

court capacity to address the challenge of cases involving human trafficking. State court and/or trial 

court technical assistance efforts have either been 

completed or are ongoing in Arizona, California, 

Georgia, Guam, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Texas, 

Delaware, Oregon, and North Dakota. Collectively, 

these efforts, which are tailored to the needs of each 

court, have involved a great range of services including assessment, planning, program development and 

implementation, training, and work process improvement.

Educational sessions on a range of topics – such as 

the forms and dynamics of human trafficking, labor 

trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation of children, trauma-informed services, and specialty courts 

and dockets – have been provided by the HT Collaborative for state court systems, trial courts, and 

justice partners located in Mississippi, Hawaii, Florida, New York, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, 

Utah, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, Wisconsin, 

Kentucky, Delaware, California, and Arizona. Moreover, additional sessions have been conducted for court associations, including the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA), the 

National Association for Court Management 

(NACM), and NAWJ. 

The resource development and publication work of 

the HT Collaborative has focused on publishing, in 

cooperation with NACM, hard-copy and electronic 

versions of an eleven chapter Guide to Addressing 

Human Trafficking in the State Courts. In addition, 

the HT Collaborative has completed a series of nine

information cards that provide four page summaries 

of topics examined in greater depth in the HT 

Guide. 

Human Trafficking & 

the State Courts 

1 

Access to Justice in 

Massachusetts 

2 

Language Access in 

Rhode Island 

3 

Continues on page 2 
Page 2 

E-SJI News Volume 25, No. 4 January 2015 

The Massachusetts Judiciary continues to coordinate resources to broaden access to civil 

justice for all litigants. Programs and services 

are focused on self-represented litigants, individuals with limited or no English proficiency, 

and individuals with mental or physical disabilities. 

In FY 2013, the Massachusetts Trial Court 

created the Access to Justice Initiative to enhance access for the public and court staff. 

With support from SJI (SJI-12-T-132), the 

Boston Municipal, District, and Housing 

Courts introduced small claims forms translated into the seven most widely-used languages. In addition, a self-help video project

created complementary small claims videos in 

those languages. 

With additional SJI assistance (SJI-13-T-084), 

the Massachusetts Administrative Office of the 

Trial Court (AOTC) has been preparing to 

implement a technical assistance pilot project 

that will help to establish a model language 

access courthouse at the Worcester Trial 

Court. The project, now in its implementation 

phase, aims to address several key areas of 

concern for all trial courts throughout the state, 

including: 

Access to Justice for Litigants 

in Massachusetts 

Delivery of justice to limited English 

proficient (LEP) individuals; 

Standardization of flexible service plans 

for trial courts to serve LEP and selfrepresented litigants; and,

Replicable standards, policies, and protocols for language access in the courts.

Much of the past year has been focused on 

developing a cohesive LEP Advisory Committee, consisting of key justice stakeholders, to 

oversee the project. 

Implementation of this initiative aligns with 

the Judiciary’s strategic plan regarding access 

to justice through improving the coordination 

of resources set forth in the FY 2013 Annual 

Report on the State of the Massachusetts Court 

System. 

Completion of the work later this year will 

help to establish a model language access 

courthouse at the Worcester Trial Court, and 

make resources available to other state courts 

that can be adapted to their own collaborative 

language access projects. 

Continued from page 1 

Recently, in an effort led by HT Collaborative 

member NAWJ, the group completed a Trafficking in Persons – Modern Day Slavery program manual that will be released in April 

2015. Finally, the HT Collaborative also publishes a Human Trafficking in the News summary every two weeks.

Over the next year, the HT Collaborative will 

continue to provide technical assistance, resource development, training, and networking 

services to state and local courts. In addition, 

the HT Collaborative will: 

support the National Summit on Human 

Trafficking and the State Courts hosted 

by the New York Unified Court System 

in October 2015; 

address the challenges of increasing gang 

involvement in labor and sex trafficking; 

continue assessing the intersection between labor and sex trafficking; 

determine how labor-trafficking involved 

cases might end up in the state courts; 

implement trauma-informed approaches 

to addressing human trafficking; and 

develop state court approaches for working with non-U.S. citizen trafficking victims, such as unaccompanied immigrant 

minors, as well as U.S. citizen victims. 
Page 3 

SJI Board of Directors

Chairman 

James R. Hannah 

Chief Justice 

Supreme Court of Arkansas 

Little Rock, AR 

Vice Chairman 

Daniel J. Becker 

State Court Administrator 

Utah AOC 

Salt Lake City, UT 

Secretary 

Gayle A. Nachtigal 

Senior Circuit Court Judge 

Washington County Circuit Court 

Hillsboro, OR 

Treasurer 

Hernan D. Vera 

President & CEO 

Public Counsel Law Center 

Los Angeles, CA 

Chase T. Rogers 

Chief Justice 

Supreme Court of Connecticut 

Hartford, CT 

Jonathan Lippman 

Chief Judge of the State of New York 

New York Court of Appeals 

New York, NY 

David V. Brewer 

Justice 

Oregon Supreme Court 

Salem, OR 

Wilfredo Martinez 

County Judge 

9th Judicial Circuit of Florida 

Orlando, FL 

Marsha J. Rabiteau 

Executive Director 

Legal Policy Strategies Group 

Bloomfield, CT 

John B. Nalbandian 

Partner 

Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP 

Cincinnati, OH 

Isabel Framer 

President 

Language Access Consultants, LLC 

Copley, OH

Jonathan D. Mattiello 

Executive Director 

The State Justice Institute is a federallyfunded, non-profit corporation established by 

federal law in 1984 to improve the quality of 

justice in the state courts. 

E-SJI News Volume 25, No. 4 January 2015 

Beginning in 2012, all Rhode Island Courts 

were directed that limited English proficient 

(LEP) individuals should have meaningful 

access to the courts in a language that they are 

able to understand. The goal was to promote 

the accuracy and integrity of judicial proceedings, and preserve fundamental principles of 

fairness and access to justice. 

Evolving from the Rhode Island Judiciary’s 

commitment to providing language access 

services to LEP individuals that come in contact with the courts, the Language Access 

Project was launched. The project established 

that Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian were 

frequently spoken by court-involved persons, 

and at stages (during filing or for small claims, 

prior to proceedings or mediation) when a 

court interpreter was not provided. 

With a grant from SJI (SJI-12-T-159), the 

Judiciary was able to advance the project by 

combining the resources available from the 

Office of Court Interpreters (OCI) and the 

National Center for State Courts (NCSC), to 

translate forms and signage in courthouses, 

engage in language access planning, as well as 

convert the Judiciary’s website for viewing in 

all three languages. Feedback over the past 

year indicated that not only are these resources 

aiding courts in their provision of services to 

LEP individuals, but they have had a significant impact on these communities. 

The project has since expanded to include 

translation and adaptation of forms in Cambodian. The Judiciary continues to work to identify litigants whose primary language is not 

English, and provide language services to 

assist them in court proceedings. 

Rhode Island Continues Language Access Project