SJI NEWSLETTER SJI NEWSLETTER

In this Issue 

Page 1 

Volume 26, No. 2 

SJI Awards FY 2016 First Quarter Grants 

Promoting 

Our Work

SJI not only uses Facebook and 

Twitter to promote the work of 

its grantees, but also shares information of interest to the entire state court community. If 

your organization’s work complements ours, let us know and 

we will share it! 

FY 2016 1st Quarter 

Grant Awards 

1 

New Report on the 

Landscape of Civil 

Litigation in State 

Courts 

2 

Vermont Weighted 

Caseload Study 

2 

New Report on Risk 

and Needs Assessment at Sentencing 

3 

The SJI Board of Directors met on November 16, 

2015, at the Supreme Court of Louisiana in New 

Orleans to make decisions on quarterly grant applications and awarded a total of fourteen (14) new 

grants. 

Two (2) Project Grants were awarded: support to the 

National Center for State Courts (NCSC) to update 

the Managing Notorious Trials for the 21st Century; 

and the National Association for Court Management 

(NACM) for educational sessions on critical court 

management topics. 

Ten (10) Technical Assistance (TA) Grants were 

approved, including: assistance to the Louisiana SuNovember 2015 

preme Court for a court costs and fees collection improvement plan; support to the North Dakota Supreme 

Court for a caseflow management project; strategic 

planning for the 7th Judicial Circuit of Maryland; and 

support to the Council for Court Excellence for a 

cross-jurisdictional review of remote public access to 

electronic court records. 

Two (2) Curriculum Adaptation & Training (CAT) 

Grants were approved: support to the Guam Judiciary 

for a Working Interdisciplinary Network of Guardianship Stakeholders (WINGS) Implementation and 

Guardianship training project; and the Merced 

County, California, Superior Court for online courthouse security training. 
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SJI Newsletter Volume 26, No. 2 November 2015 

The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) 

recently released a report titled, The Landscape of Civil Litigation of State Courts, 

which examines case characteristics and outcomes for 925,344 civil cases disposed during 

a one-year interval from courts exercising 

jurisdiction over civil cases in 10 urban counties in the United States. These 925,344 cases 

comprise approximately 5 percent of state civil 

caseloads nationally. 

Among the report’s key findings: 

More than half of the Landscape cases 

were low-value debt collection, landlord/

tenant, and small claims cases. 

For the civil caseloads, three-quarters of 

the judgments entered were $5,200 or 

less. 

Most cases were resolved through an 

administrative process rather than an 

adversarial proceeding. 

New Report on the Landscape of Civil Litigation 

in State Courts 

At least one party was self-represented in 

more than three-quarters of the cases. 

Landscape is the first significant multijurisdiction study of civil caseloads since the 

1992 Civil Justice Survey of State Courts, and is 

more comprehensive than the 1992 study insofar 

that it examines the entire civil caseload, rather 

than just cases filed in general jurisdiction 

courts. 

With SJI support (SJI-13-P-201), the NCSC 

undertook the Landscape study to inform the 

deliberations of the Conference of Chief Justices 

(CCJ) Civil Justice Improvements Committee. The CCJ Civil Justice Improvements Committee is expected to release its final report and 

recommendations for addressing these challenges 

in early 2016. 

Vermont Completes Judicial Officer and Court 

Staff Caseload Study 

With SJI support, the Vermont Judiciary worked with the National 

Center for State Courts (NCSC) to complete a weighted caseload assessment that established workload standards for the trial courts in 

Vermont (SJI-14-N-007). 

All judicial officers and staff participated in this caseload assessment, 

which included the Civil, Criminal, Family and Probate Divisions, as 

well as the statewide Environmental Division and Vermont Judicial 

Bureau. 

The report makes specific recommendations regarding: 

optimal numbers of judges and staff, by divisions; 

opportunities for updating the standards annually on the basis of 

case filings; and 

advancing the qualitative aspects of the study over time, as conditions change. 
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SJI Board of Directors

Chairman 

James R. Hannah 

Chief Justice (ret.) 

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 

Principal 

Bird Marella P.C. 

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. 

SJI News letter Volume 26, No. 2 November 2015 

New Report Highlights Risk and Needs 

Assessment at Sentencing 

In 2011, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) developed a report summarizing guidance from a National Working Group on how courts use offender risk and 

needs assessment (RNA) information to inform corrections-related decisions. 

The Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators 

subsequently endorsed the report, and passed Resolution 7 recommending that 

“offender risk and needs assessment information be available to inform judicial 

decisions regarding effective management and reduction of the risk of offender 

recidivism.” 

A new report that explores how ten jurisdictions from across the country have been 

using defendant risk and needs assessment information at sentencing is now available. This report, Using Risk and Needs Assessment Information at Sentencing: 

Observations from Ten Jurisdictions, offers examples of how these jurisdictions 

have implemented the nine guiding principles for using RNAs to inform sentencing 

and probation revocation decisions. It also captures themes in stakeholder perceptions of RNA information and its use at sentencing, experiences in adopting these 

reforms, and lessons learned. 

Visit the NCSC’s Center for Sentencing Initiatives website for more details on the 

project and additional resources on the sentencing of offenders in the state courts.