SJI Newsletter

November 2020 | Volume 31, No. 2

SJI Board Member Hernan Vera

Appointed to the Bench

On November 13, 2020, SJI Board Member Hernan D. Vera was appointed by Governor

Gavin Newsom to serve as a Judge in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Vera has

been a Principal at Bird Marella since 2015, where he focuses his practice on complex civil

litigation and class action defense. He also counsels and advises clients on risk

management in public matters where a problem-solving, community approach is essential

to the success of the litigation. He previously served as President & Chief Executive

Officer of Public Counsel, the nation’s largest pro bono, public interest law firm. He was

the first Latino leader of the 40-year-old civil rights organization, which is based in Los

Angeles. Mr. Vera was a commercial litigator with the international firm of O’Melveny &

Myers LLP, where he specialized in class actions. Mr. Vera has also worked as an

Education Staff Attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund

and clerked for the Honorable Consuelo B. Marshall, U.S. District Court Judge for the

Central District of California. He was appointed to the SJI Board of Directors in 2010. He

received an A.B., with Distinction, from Stanford University, and his J.D. from the UCLA 

School of Law.
Virtual/Remote Services in Judicially-Led Programs/Initiatives

Perspectives from the Field

Purpose

The National Center for State Courts, Rulo Strategies, and the Center of Behavioral Health

and Justice at Wayne State University want to hear from the field on virtual/remote

services in practice. This survey is intended to collect information from judges and court

professionals working directly in a local or regional problem-solving court, specialty

court or other judicially-led diversion programs. The information will contribute to

discussions on policy and practice changes (local, state, and national) in the future as

developed in response to the pandemic.

Who

The survey is written for judges, community supervision agencies, treatment providers, and

other stakeholders of judicially-led programs. Questions asked in the survey are driven by

your role (e.g. judge, probation, coordinator, treatment provider, peer support, etc.) in the

program.

Return on Investment

Information gathered from this survey will be made available to all individuals who

contributed in a report format. Your responses to the survey will only be reported in

aggregate. 

Survey Links

Judge/Coordinator/Attorneys

Community Supervision

Treatment Providers/Peer Support

Questions or Comments

Contact Kristina Bryant (kbryant@ncsc.org) or Tara Kunkel (tara@rulostrategies.com).
2020 NACM Annual Virtual Conference and Expo

With SJI support, the National Association for Court Management (NACM) has made

content from its 2020 NACM Annual Virtual Conference and Expo available online. This

year’s event went virtual for the first time due to the complexities of the COVID-19

pandemic. Plenaries, workshops, the annual business meeting and much more have all

been uploaded as videos that you can watch sequentially or by subject/session area.

NACM is also accepting proposals for its 2021 Conference, Justice for All: Courts at the

Crossroads. NACM is committed to providing innovative, engaging and emerging trends at

the Midyear and Annual conferences. Conferences are made up of plenary and

concurrent breakout sessions.

Private Sector – please contact Stacey Smith about sponsorships with speaking

opportunities.

Groundbreaking Project Could Lead to

‘Faster Courts’ Nationwide

Before the coronavirus pandemic reduced court operations, state courts nationwide

resolved 40 criminal felony cases and 100 criminal misdemeanor cases every minute 

of every day, but most courts failed to meet national time standards because of too 

many continuances and scheduled hearings.
These findings come from one of the most ambitious undertakings of its kind, the Effective

Criminal Case Management project, a five-year examination of 1.2 million felony and

misdemeanor cases from 136 courts in 21 states. The National Center for State Courts

(NCSC) released a report that details the project’s findings, conclusions, and

recommendations. The researchers who worked on the project say the recommendations

provide a roadmap for how courts can operate faster and more efficiently. They

recommend that courts:

• Limit continuances;

• Compile good data that help them figure out why some cases are resolved more

quickly than others; and

• Schedule hearings on dates that maximize the likelihood that prosecutors and

defense attorneys will be prepared.

Here are some of the project’s major findings:

• The project allowed researchers for the first time to estimate the number of

criminal cases resolved each year in the nation’s state courts – more than 18

million, five million felony and 13 million misdemeanor.

• The average time to disposition is 256 days for felony cases and 193 days for

misdemeanors, but no court in the study meets the current national time

standards. Current time standards say that 98 percent of felony cases should be

resolved within 365 days, and 98 percent of misdemeanor cases should be

resolved within 180 days. On average, courts in the study resolved 83 percent of

felony cases within 365 days and 77 percent of misdemeanors within 180 days.

• The courts that resolve cases faster are led by presiding judges who make it

clear that they dislike continuances, which lead to additional hearings and delays.

• Timely courts dismiss fewer cases, and they are faster across all case types and

all manners of disposition.

• Differences in court structure play a small but surprising role in overall average

timeliness, with single-tiered courts being least timely and two-tiered courts being

most timely.

“The report’s most important conclusions revolve around what faster courts do to be fast

and what slower courts do that make them slow,” said lead researcher Brian Ostrom. “We

know courts are always striving to be more efficient, so our hope is that court leaders read

the report and implement its recommendations. What’s at stake is whether every person’s

constitutional right to due process is honored in the process of seeking justice in individual

cases.”

NCSC consultants Ostrom and Patti Tobias will provide as much as 60 minutes of free

advice to courts that want to know how to operate faster and more efficiently, as part of the

NCSC’s Dr. Is In program. Go here to sign up.

For more information about this project, including an appendix that lists the courts

involved, go here.
SAMHSA GAINS Center Announces Criminal Justice

Communities of Practice

Application deadline: December 16, 2020

SAMHSA’s GAINS Center for Behavioral Health and Justice Transformation, operated by

Policy Research Associates, Inc., and known nationally for its work regarding people with

behavioral health needs involved in the criminal justice system, is convening four topical

Communities of Practice (CoPs) to work intensively with select communities on the

following topics:

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion in Reentry

About the Criminal Justice CoPs

Each CoP brings together local jurisdiction teams to create coordinated local strategic

plans and implementation strategies for the topic of focus. Selected teams for each CoP

will work intensively to determine optimal ways to implement best practices and define

success indicators for their respective CoP. Each topic-specific CoP will engage subjectmatter experts to work with jurisdiction teams during the implementation process and

facilitate peer-to-peer sharing. Through a virtual platform, selected teams will work together

to learn and complete their implementation work while, at the same time, share with other

jurisdictions and receive an array of technical assistance from subject-matter experts

across the country. The CoPs are designed to achieve four key objectives:

• Enhance collective knowledge of key issues and familiarity with the topic;

• Understand promising, best, and evidence-based practices to address the topic and

related issues;

• Develop strategic plans that focus on the issue, including defining assignments,

deadlines, and measurable outcomes to be reported; and
• Increase knowledge about the challenges and lessons learned in implementing

strategies through peer-to-peer sharing via virtual convenings, monthly collaborative

calls, and other virtual mechanisms.

Application and Selection Process

• Applications are due December 16, 2020.

• General requirements:

o Narrative (up to five pages).

o Expectations/guidelines will differ by CoP topic.

o List of key stakeholders who will participate in the team.

o Letters of support or commitment from key partners.

• Selected jurisdictions will be notified on or about January 4, 2021.

Informational Webinars

For more information about these opportunities and how to prepare a CoP application,

please register for one of the upcoming informational webinar sessions:

November 30, 2020, 3:00–4:00 p.m. ET

December 2, 2020, 3:00–4:00 p.m. ET

NCSC Report on How to Keep Court User Safe During SelfHelp Services

Earlier this year, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) released a report-style

guide. The purpose of this report is to provide facilities and access to justice

recommendations for how courts can continue to offer in-person self-help services while

respecting the public health and social distancing provisions required under COVID-19.

As confirmed cases continue to rise in states across the country, this resource may help

courts maintain their efficiency, especially those which have slowly reopened or

reintegrated self-directed services.

In addition to the report, there is also Tiny Chat #13 from Danielle Hirsch and Zach

Zarnow, who are joined by NCSC Senior Architect and Facilities Planner Allie McKenzie to

discuss six tips from the report further exploring this topic.
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

David V. Brewer

Justice

Oregon Supreme Court

Salem, OR

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

Partner

Pitney Day, LLP

Hartford, CT

Wilfredo Martinez

Senior Judge

State 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.

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