Volume 25, No. 1 October 2014 

E-SJI NEWS SJI NEWS

In this Issue 

Colorado Civil Access 

Pilot Project 

1 - 2 

FY 2015 Grant Guideline 1 

WINGS Guardianship 

Guide Now Available 

2 

Language Access 

Basic Training Suite 

3 

Page 1 

Colorado Civil Access Pilot Project 

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 SJI’s Facebook

and Twitter pages. 

The Institute for the Advancement of the American 

Legal System (IAALS) at the University of Denver, 

recently announced its findings on Colorado’s efforts to reform civil court proceedings with new 

court procedures. This project was supported by 

SJI based on the Colorado Supreme Court’s request 

that IAALS evaluate the success of these reforms 

(SJI-12-N-127). 

“The impetus behind the new rules was our growing awareness and concern that the prohibitive costs 

and delays of civil litigation were foreclosing access to the judicial system,” said Judge Ann Frick, a 

leader on this issue from the beginning of the initiative. The IAALS report, Momentum for Change: 

The Impact of the Colorado Civil Access Pilot Project, outlines the results of Colorado’s effort to 

address those issues, based on two years of data 

collection and empirical evaluation. “I am grateful 

for the enthusiSJI Releases FY 2015 Grant Guideline 

SJI recently released the Grant Guideline for FY 

2015. The Grant Guideline appears as part of the 

National Archives and Records Administration’s Federal Register, and sets forth the administrative, programmatic, and financial requirements for applying 

for and administering SJI grants. 

FY 2015 Deadlines for Project, Technical Assistance, 

and Curriculum Adaptation Grants are as follows: 1st

Quarter - November 1, 2014; 2nd Quarter – February 

1, 2015; 3rd Quarter – May 1, 2015; and, 4th Quarter – 

August 1, 2015.

Continued on page 2 
E-SJI News Volume 25, No. 1 October 2014 

Page 2 

astic participation by the bench and bar in the 

project,” said Judge Wick. 

The Colorado Civil Access Pilot Project 

(CAPP) was developed by a committee of 

plaintiff and defense lawyers, as well as bar 

leaders. Beginning in 2012, five state district 

courts began testing the new pretrial procedures for pleading, disclosure, discovery, and 

case management in business cases. 

As a whole, CAPP has succeeded in achieving 

many of its objectives, including: 

The CAPP rules reduce the time to resolution over both of Colorado’s existing 

procedures (standard and simplified). The 

rules increase the probability of an earlier 

resolution over the standard procedure. 

Four out of five attorneys in CAPP cases 

indicated that the time it took to reach 

National Guardianship Network Releases 

Guide for Replicating WINGS 

resolution in a case was proportionate, 

and three out of four agreed that the costs 

to get there were also proportionate. 

CAPP cases benefit from management by 

a single judge, who handles the case 

much earlier and twice as often. 

The CAPP process is not tilted in favor of 

either plaintiffs or defendants. 

The research also highlights a number of persistent challenges in creating new rules, including determining the appropriate basis for 

differentiating cases, the logistics of how each 

part of the process relates to the other aspects, 

and issues of compliance and enforcement. 

IAALS, in partnership with the Conference of 

Chief Justices (CCJ) and the National Center 

for State Courts (NCSC) has been developing 

guidelines and best practices for civil litigation 

based on the work in Colorado and other states 

through the ongoing SJI-funded Civil Justice 

Initiative. Their collaboration will also provide templates for civil rules and operational 

practices that can be adopted nationwide. 

The IAALS’ evaluation provides a detailed 

source of information, and further answers the 

national call for robust empirical data on proposed civil justice reforms. Pilot projects and 

rules changes for civil cases are being implemented all over the country in both state and 

federal courts. These projects will provide 

decision-makers with concrete information on 

how to improve civil justice in their states and 

across the U.S. 

The recently released report, WINGS Tips: 

State Replication Guide for Working Interdisciplinary Networks of Guardianship Stakeholders is now available. Produced by the 

American Bar Association/Commission on 

Law and Aging for the National Guardianship 

Network, this publication provides a “HowTo” guide that details initiating, developing, 

and sustaining successful stakeholder networks, comprised of probate judges, attorneys 

and counselors, disability rights coalitions, 

advocacy groups for the aging, and other key 

stakeholders in elder law cases (SJI-12-N157). 

The report is an answer to the inquiries from 

many constituents present at the 2011 Third 

National Guardianship Summit, and addresses 

the recommendation that coordinated statecourt community partnerships be established 

and implemented. WINGS, currently active in 

seven states (IN, MO, NY, OH, OR, TX, and 

UT) work collaboratively to achieve their 

goals, and include the following characteristics: 

are ongoing and sustainable; 

are broad-based and interdisciplinary, 

including non-professionals; 

are problem solving in nature; 

look primarily to changes in practice, and 

extend beyond legislative changes; 

start with solutions that are short-term to 

generate momentum; 

depend on “mutually reinforcing activities” of stakeholders, and foster trust and 

communication; 

include a focus on rights and personcentered planning; 

welcome public input, and are transparent 

to the public; 

make continuous adaptations; 

see themselves as part of a national network. 

The report goes on to describe ten steps to 

launch and maintain a WINGS group, and 

online resources from existing statewide 

WINGS. 

Continued from page 1 
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. 1 October 2014 

Supported by SJI, the Language Access Basic 

Training (LABT) Suite is a project developed 

by the New Mexico Center for Language 

Access along with the National Center for 

State Courts, the Council of Language Access Coordinators (CLAC), and the Language 

Access Advisory Committee (LAAC). 

The LABT Suite provides language access 

training and qualification for state courts in 

order to improve the quality of language 

access services outside the courtroom for 

Limited English Proficient (LEP) individuals. 

The LABT Suite is a downloadable interactive training module for bilingual court employees who interact with people outside of 

the courtroom. The purpose of the training is 

to ensure that all court employees have a 

basic understanding of their ethical and legal 

obligations, as well as current best practices 

Ensuring Language Access Outside the 

Courtroom: Training for Judicial Employees 

in serving LEP and non-English speaking 

individuals. SJI encourages all state courts 

to take advantage of this excellent training opportunity.