January 2008

E-SJI News

Vol. 18, No. 4

What’s Inside

LSC/SJI Partnership Yields Results (cont.) 2 Improving Pattern Jury Instructions 2 Reminders 3

On January 24, 2008, SJI submitted

its FY 2009 Budget request to the

House and Senate Commerce, Justice,

Science (CJS) Appropriations Subcommittees. For FY 2009, SJI is

requesting $5,389,000 to enhance its

efforts to improve the quality of justice in State courts.

The request is $1,629,000 above the level provided in

the FY 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L.

110-161), and $1,611,000 below the level as authorized by the State Justice Reauthorization Act of 2004

(P.L. 108-372).

Between FY 2006 and 2007, the total amount requested in grant applications increased 41 percent.

Specifically, in FY 2007, total funding requested for

Project Grants was $2,771,533; an increase of

$866,533 (45 percent) over FY 2006. Furthermore,

Partner Grant awards totaled $896,379 in FY 2007; a

39 percent increase over FY 2006. The

demands for Technical Assistance and

Curriculum Adaptation & Training

Grants are increasing as well. SJI developed its FY 2009 budget taking into

account these grant statistics, and anticipated increases in grant requests for FY 2008 and

2009.

SJI remains the only source of federal funding dedicated exclusively to improving the quality of justice in

State courts. There is a strong interest in continuing to

support the State courts, since they handle over 97 percent of all the cases in the United States. The funding

requested for FY 2009 will enable SJI to continue identifying issues that impact all courts, fostering innovative solutions, and sharing information on successful

approaches nationwide.

SJI SUBMITS FY 2009 BUDGET REQUEST TO CONGRESS

continued on next page

LSC/SJI PARTNERSHIP YIELDS RESULTS

The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) and SJI began

working to tighten the bonds between courts and legal

aid providers in FY 2006. This partnership continues

to provide additional resources to develop collaborative efforts between the courts and legal service programs in order to better serve self-represented and lowincome litigants across the United States. The number

of individuals choosing to represent themselves in the

courts is increasing, and there is not enough support

available to assist them with legal matters. As a result,

innovative technology projects have been developed to

fill this gap. One example is the Access to Justice

(A2J) project, which enabled courts and legal services

programs to develop Internet-based programs to provide self-represented litigants better access to the

courts. The second is a project called HotDocs, developed to support pro bono attorneys who service lowincome litigants. HotDocs is a software program used
Page 2 E-SJI News - Vol. 18, No. 4

Juries and jury trials have received unprecedented

attention in recent years. Much of the focus has been

on pretrial jury management issues and in-court trial

procedures. While concentration on these management

issues has been predominant, many judicial and bar

leaders have become increasingly aware of the importance of jury instructions. The attention has centered

on what has become recognized as Pattern Jury

Instructions (PJI). The Ohio Supreme Court, the Ohio

Judicial Conference, and the National Center for State

Courts (NCSC) began working together to develop a

program for Ohio on how PJI could best serve the

courts in assuring credibility to trial judges, lawyers,

and reviewing courts in that State, and providing legal

accuracy and clarity to jurors. Although the original

project focused on Ohio, it was soon realized that many

other PJI committees throughout the United States had

been created to examine internal procedures to address

the same organizational and technical issues. The Ohio

Supreme Court and NCSC received a SJI grant (SJI07-N-009) to develop a program that would assist the

State in this important area.

Ohio has since included other PJI committees in these

efforts and is hosting a two-day National Conference

on Pattern Jury Instructions, April 17-18, 2008, at the

Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio. The conference

will feature plenary sessions on topics of interest to all

PJI members and concurrent sessions focusing on

unique issues related to civil or criminal PJI committees, and PJI committee management and reporting.

All members of state and federal PJI committees are

invited to attend. States interested are encouraged to

visit the website: www.pjiconference.org. 

IMPROVING PATTERN JURY INSTRUCTIONS

LSC/SJI PARTNERSHIP YIELDS RESULTS

continued from page 1

to create online forms and pleadings. Once a form has

been created and uploaded to the web site, self-represented litigants can fill in the form by answering questions and entering the information requested. The software then combines the information and supplies a finished form that can be saved and printed. 

LSC recently reported some statistics from the utilization of the HotDocs Server. During the second quarter

of 2007, the National Document Assembly server

delivered 34,625 interviews, and assembled 18,914

documents, bringing the 2007 totals to 68,157 interviews and 38,682 assembled documents. Compared to

the totals for the first and second quarters of 2006, this

is an approximately 48 percent increase in the number

of delivered interviews, and a 125 percent increase in

the number of assembled documents. SJI is proud to

have been able to contribute to these successes, and is

planning to continue these joint efforts in the future.
Page 3 E-SJI News - Vol. 18, No. 4

SJI News is published by the State Justice Institute

1650 King Street, Suite 600, Alexandria, VA 22314 

(703) 684-6100 Fax: (703) 684-7618 Web site address: http://www.statejustice.org

Editors

Janice Munsterman

Jonathan Mattiello

Design/Layout

Candice Jackson

Board of Directors

Chairman

Robert A. Miller

Chief Justice (Ret.)

Supreme Court of South Dakota

Pierre, SD

Vice Chairman

Joseph F. Baca

Chief Justice (Ret.)

New Mexico Supreme Court

Santa Fe, NM

Secretary

Sandra A. O’Connor

States Attorney of Baltimore County (Ret.)

Towson, MD

Executive Committee Member

Keith McNamara, Esq.

McNamara & McNamara

Columbus, OH

Terrence B. Adamson, Esq.

Executive Vice-President

The National Geographic Society

Robert N. Baldwin

Executive Vice President and 

General Counsel

National Center for State Courts

Carlos R. Garza, Esq.

Administrative Judge (Ret.)

Round Rock, TX

Sophia H. Hall

Administrative Presiding Judge

Circuit Court of Cook County

Chicago, IL

Tommy Jewell

Presiding Children’s Court Judge (Ret.)

Second Judicial District Court

Albuquerque, NM

Arthur A. McGiverin

Chief Justice (Ret.)

Supreme Court of Iowa

Des Moines, IA

Janice Munsterman

Executive Director

Jonathan Mattiello

Deputy Director

Van Debrick

Finance Director

The State Justice Institute is a private, nonprofit corporation established by Congress

in 1984 to provide support for projects to

improve the quality of justice in State

courts. SJI is governed by a Board of

Directors appointed by the President and

confirmed by the Senate.

CONTACT THE STAFF

Are you on the E-SJI News e-list? Would you like to be? If so, please send your name and email

address to esjinews@statejustice.org to start receiving the E-SJI Newsletter. 

Janice Munsterman, Executive Director

jmunsterman@statejustice.org, Ext. 202

Jonathan Mattiello, Deputy Director

jmattiello@statejustice.org, Ext. 210

Van Debrick, Finance Director

vdebrick@statejustice.org, Ext. 203

LaVerne Durham, Program Manager

ldurham@statejustice.org, Ext. 204

Candice Jackson, Office Manager

cjackson@statejustice.org, Ext. 200

Ryan Williams, Finance Manager

rwilliams@statejustice.org, Ext. 206

REMINDERS

Applications for all grants and scholarships must be received by

SJI on May 1, 2008, to be considered for the third quarter of

FY 2008. Please be advised this is not a mail date, but the date

the application must be physically received by SJI.

As a reminder, all forms and documents necessary to both apply

for and manage SJI grants are available on the SJI website:

http://statejustice.org/forms.php.