SJI Newsletter

May 2018 | Volume 28, No. 8

SJI Awards FY 2018 Second Quarter Grants

The SJI Board of Directors met on April 23, 2018, at the St. Louis County, Missouri, Courthouse to make decisions 

on quarterly grant applications and awarded a total of 13 new grants.

A Strategic Initiatives Grant (SIG) was awarded to the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) to support a 

Natural Language Processing initiative for state courts. Natural Language Processing(NLP) is a field of computer 

science, artificial intelligence, and computational linguistics that employs predictive analysis and machine learning, 

and focuses on the interaction between computers and both written and spoken language. NLP has become useful 

for a variety of legal tasks, most prominently as the primary technique employed in e-discovery to identify 

documented related to a specific query based on keywords or phrases. Although courts have vast repositories of 

legal documents, they have been slow to adopt NLP technologies. This project will support the use of NLP for court 

operations in two distinct areas: 1) triage of civil cases into appropriate case processing pathways; and; 2) quality 

control for high-volume dockets to ensure principals of procedural due process. For civil case triage, the NCSC will 

work with general jurisdiction courts that participated in the Civil Justice Initiative (CJI) automated civil case triage 

project, to use NLP to identify and extract key terms and characteristics from the case pleadings and develop a 

more robust triage model than was possible using a case management system. For quality control over highvolume documents, the NCSC will work with one or more limited jurisdiction courts to identify inaccurate or missing 

information from case documents in consumer debt collection or other high-volume dockets that would 
signal the need for increased judicial review. The project will be guided by an 8-member Advisory Committee 

consisting of the Conference of State Court Administrators / National Association for Court Management /

NCSC Joint Technology Committee (JTC), the Court Information Technology Officers Consortium (CITOC), and 

other subject matter experts. 

A Project Grant was awarded to the Missouri Judiciary to support a Circuit Realignment Plan. The plan will 

include: recommendations for changes to the geographical boundaries and territorial jurisdiction of the judicial 

circuits; a statement on the numbers and boundaries of the proposed judicial circuits, together with a map of the 

proposed judicial circuits; a current judicial weighted workload model, clerical weighted workload model, judicial 

duties and travel time; and other information deemed relevant by the Missouri Judicial Conference.

Seven (7) Technical Assistance (TA) Grants were awarded: The 4th Judicial Circuit of Florida to increase 

access to family court forms; the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts for a criminal case management 

assessment in Jefferson County; Yakima County, Washington, Superior Court for a calendaring and case 

management project; the National Association of Presiding Judges and Court Executive Officers (NAPCO) to 

update and promote the 2005 monograph titled, Key Elements of an Effective Rule of Court on the Role of the 

Presiding Judge in Trial Courts; the Berrien County, Michigan, Trial Court for a strategic planning project; the 

Hawaii Judiciary for a plain language English translation and training initiative; and the 37th Judicial Circuit of 

Alabama for a caseload assessment. 

Four (4) Curriculum Adaptation and Training (CAT) Grants were awarded: the National Judicial College (NJC)

for a judicial webcasts series; the NJC for a judicial podcast series; the Tennessee Administrative Office of the

Courts to develop a curriculum for establishing business courts; and the 8th District Court of Michigan for an 

implicit bias/procedural fairness education program for judges and staff.

The next deadline for grant applications is August 1, 2018 (FY 2018, 4th quarter).

On May 15, 2018, The U.S. Senate confirmed SJI Board member John Nalbandian to be a U.S. Circuit Court 

Judge for the Sixth Circuit.

Mr. Nalbandian currently is a partner in the Litigation Department of Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP. He 

concentrates on appellate and complex litigation in state and federal courts and is a member of the firms 

Appellate Practice group. He has represented clients in a wide range of areas including antitrust, class actions, 

products liability, intellectual property, and white collar crime. Mr. Nalbandian is a member of the Ohio, 

Kentucky, Virginia, and District of Columbia Bars. He is a member of the Ohio State Bar Association and the

Senate Confirms SJI Board Member

John Nalbandian to Sixth Circuit
 American Bar Association. He also serves on the Ohio State Bar Associations Appellate Practice Specialty Board 

and is a member of the Greater Cincinnati Minority Counsel Programs Board of Directors.

Mr. Nalbandian is a Life Member of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and serves on the Life Member Committee. 

He has served as a Board member of the Telecommunications Board of Northern Kentucky and the Northern 

Kentucky Tri-Ed Board of Directors, and has been recognized annually since 2007 by The Best Lawyers in 

America for his work in Appellate Law. He has also served as a Special Justice on the Kentucky Supreme Court 

and is a frequent presenter on appellate practice. He was appointed to the SJI Board of Directors in 2010.

National Judicial Webcasts Build Judicial Knowledge and Skills

The National Judicial College (NJC) regularly offers webcasts that provide judges with a flexible opportunity to 

engage in professional development from their chambers. SJI and other partners often provide resources to 

the NJC, so they are able to offer webcasts at no charge with advance registration. The NJC also maintains an 

On-Demand Catalog of course content and webcasts that are archived. 

The NJC has a website for upcoming webcasts, and the option to subscribe to a list for future course and 

eCasts announcements. 

Cochise County, AZ, Completes Court Self-Help Center

Earlier this month, as part of Law Day celebrations taking place across the country, the Cochise County 

Law Library reopened as a Self-Help Center. Housed within the Bisbee Courthouse, the newly remodeled 

space offers dynamic new spaces filled with natural light, allowing for individual and group discussions.
Space where events and informational clinics can be held;

Added public computer terminals for public research;

Dedicated space for interpreters and translators to work with clients;

Caselaw access electronically; and,

A new librarian position to assist with increased traffic.

To learn more about the effective use of court space and resources, visit the Cochise County news page and 

the NCSCs courthouse facilities section website.

With a grant from SJI, consultants from the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) were able to provide 

assistance to the Court in order to achieve a transformation that will allow greater access to legal forms, 

information, and/or guided help with research for both attorneys and the public. Some of the outcomes included:

IAALS Guide Seeks to Help

Redefine the Culture of Case Management

The Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) issued a new report titled, 

Redefining Case Management. The report provides strategies to help courts take charge of the delivery of 

justice in response to changing landscape, utilizing a strategic style of case management. Specifically, the 

objectives of the report include:

Empowering the court throughout all phases of the case management process;

Incorporating the litigants desire to see resolution of their dispute as a function and outcome

of case management;

Emphasizing the access to justice (progress) over specific steps (process); and,

Providing responsive strategies that enable a holistic vision for case management.

The report uses input from a well-versed group of subject matter experts, and notes that new challenges arising 

before the courts are also opportunities for judges and administrators to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, 

and satisfaction with the legal process.
SJI Board of Directors

Chair

John D. Minton, Jr.

Chief Justice

Supreme Court of Kentucky

Frankfort, KY

Vice Chair

Daniel J. Becker

State Court Administrator (ret.)

Utah AOC

Salt Lake City, UT

Secretary

Gayle A. Nachtigal

Senior Circuit Court Judge

Washington County Circuit Court

Hillsboro, OR

Treasurer

John B. Nalbandian

Partner

Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP

Cincinnati, OH

Jonathan Lippman

Chief Judge of New York (ret.)

of Counsel Latham

Watkins, LLP

New York, NY

Chase T. Rogers

Chief Justice (ret.)

Supreme Court of Connecticut

Hartford, CT

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

Center for Human Trafficking Court 

Solutions Bloomfield, CT

Hernan D. Vera

Principal

Bird Marella P.C.

Los Angeles, CA

Isabel Framer

President

Language Access Consultants, LLC 

Copley, OH

Jonathan D. Mattiello

Executive Director

The State Justice Institute is a

federally-funded, non-profit

corporation established by federal 

law in 1984 to improve the quality of 

justice in the state courts.

Products and Resources

Since 2011, SJI has designated the library at the National Center for State Courts as

the official repository of published work related to SJI-supported grant projects. You

can search the ecollection online by using the term, State Justice Institute.

Share the News

SJI uses Facebook and Twitter to promote the work of its grantees and also shares 

information of interest to the entire state court community. If your organizations work

complements ours, let us know and we will share.