Volume 23, No. 2 November 2012 

E-SJI NEWS SJI NEWS

In this Issue 

FY 2013 1st Quarter 

Grant Applications 

1 

CCJSCA White Paper 1 

 

 

Connecticut Pillars of 

Service Excellence 

Project 

2 

New Mexico Language 

Access Project 

3 

Page 1 

SJI received 19 grant applications requesting a total 

of $979,640 for the 1st quarter of FY 2013. The 

Board will meet on December 10, 2012 to make decisions on grant awards for the 1st quarter. 

In October 2012, SJI announced Human Trafficking 

and the State Courts as a new Priority Investment 

Area. In addition, SJI released a call for concept 

papers for a Strategic Initiatives Grant(s) on this 

critical issue. In response, SJI received 5 concept 

papers totaling $1,373,775. 

Grant applicants are encouraged to address one or 

more Priority Investment Areas with their proposed 

projects. In addition, grant applicants must delineate 

specific outcomes, and define how success will be 

measured. Beginning in FY 2013, applicants must 

research prior work on the issue they are trying to 

address using the SJI website and the National Center 

for State Courts Library and Digital Archive, where 

all SJI products produced after 2010 by grantees are 

archived. Applicants are also encouraged to research 

Follow SJI on 

Facebook and 

Twitter

For the latest information on 

projects, grant application deadlines, and updates. Connect 

with us on both forums by visiting our Facebook and Twitter

pages. 

SJI Receives FY 2013 1st Quarter 

Grant Applications

any other available sources of information not contained on the SJI or NCSC Library websites. 

SJI Grant funding remains available on a first-come, 

first-served, basis for grant applications that 

merit funding. Deadlines for the remainder of FY 

2013 are as follows: 2nd quarter – February 1, 2013; 

3rd quarter – May 1, 2013; and 4th quarter – August 

1, 2013. 

Courts (NCSC) studied the evolution of the role 

played by intermediate appellate courts (IACs) and 

their core functions. The study also examined the 

impact of the fiscal crisis on the IACs, and how they 

have adapted to those challenges. 

The white paper is available on the SJI website. 

A recently released white paper from the Council of 

Chief Judges of the State Courts of Appeal (CCJSCA)

titled, The Role of State Intermediate Appellate 

Courts: Principles for Adapting to Change, joins the 

list of SJI-supported resources available to the state 

appellate courts (SJI-10-T-152). The paper describes 

how CCJSCA and the National Center for State 

CCJSCA White Paper Addresses 

Intermediate Appellate Courts 
E-SJI News Volume 23, No. 2 November 2012 

Page 2 

Connecticut Judiciary’s Pillars of Service 

Excellence Program Promotes Core Values 

With support from SJI (SJI-11-E-012 and SJI12-E-130), the Connecticut Judicial Branch is 

implementing its Pillars of Service Excellence 

(PSE) Program to provide training for staff on 

embracing and implementing the Branch’s 

core values of integrity, fairness, respect and 

professionalism. 

The core values were articulated by the Judicial Branch in its first, long-term strategic 

plan, developed by the Public Service and 

Trust Commission. Chief Justice Chase 

Rogers established the Commission after her 

2007 swearing-in, pledging to enhance the 

public’s trust and confidence in the Branch by 

improving the delivery of services, accessibility and accountability to all stakeholders. 

The Commission worked with Judicial Branch 

staff to conduct more than 100 focus groups 

and surveys of court users. In all, more than 

1,500 stakeholders offered their opinions; 

which became the basis for the Judicial 

Branch’s plan, a blueprint that has served to 

guide operations since 2008. 

The plan also firmly articulated the Judicial 

Branch’s core values. 

The PSE Program is designed to foster, instill, 

and maintain among all Judicial Branch staff, 

a culture and environment shepherded by the 

core values, and ensure that those who use the 

court system are served with the highest level of 

consideration and accountability. 

PSE utilized the well-regarded FranklinCovey 

program, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People®. In addition, other programs have been 

developed by a core group of Judicial Branch 

employees, including Leading the Way, a multifaceted program that stresses both individual 

and core value-focused performance expectations of Judicial Branch employees. 

Recognizing the critical significance of the role 

that managers play in establishing a workplace 

guided by core values, PSE deemed it necessary 

to focus first on management. Covey’s 7 Habits program was used to support the development of the internal characteristics of managers 

in order to maximize their effectiveness. Leading the Way, a lively, multi-media presentation, 

was designed to promote an understanding of 

the Judicial Branch’s four core values in order 

to raise accountability among management. 

The program defines the core values and 

makes them recognizable within the manager’s 

daily work experience. More than 400 managers have attended the Leading the Way program. The feedback has been overwhelmingly 

positive. 

Subsequent to the Leading the Way program, 

managers have begun attending a series of 

workshops that reinforce the individual principles of integrity, fairness, respect and professionalism. Those include: Managing a Workplace of Respect (respect); Promoting a Collaborative Culture (professionalism); and 

Leading with Integrity in the Public Sector

(integrity). A second phase of the Leading the 

Way program and workshops are now being 

developed for non-managerial employees. 

This ongoing and expanding effort will continue the Judicial Branch’s dedication to promoting and integrating its core values throughout the workforce, which will enhance the 

public’s trust and confidence in the Judicial 

Branch. 
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 

Judge 

Washington County Circuit Court 

Hillsboro, OR 

Treasurer 

Hernan D. Vera 

President & CEO 

Public Counsel Law Center 

Los Angeles, CA 

Robert A. Miller 

Chief Justice (Ret.) 

Supreme Court of South Dakota 

Pierre, SD 

Chase T. Rogers 

Chief Justice 

Supreme Court of Connecticut 

Hartford, CT 

David V. Brewer 

Chief Judge 

Oregon Court of Appeals 

Salem, OR 

Wilfredo Martinez 

County Judge 

9th Judicial Circuit of Florida 

Orlando, FL 

Marsha J. Rabiteau 

Policy Consultant 

Rabiteau Consulting 

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 23, No. 2 November 2012 

New Mexico Judiciary and NMCLA: Ensuring 

Language Access Outside the Courtroom

Ensuring Language Access Outside the Courtroom: Training Judicial Employees, is a new 

SJI funded project (SJI-12-N-156) of the New 

Mexico Judiciary. With the support of the 

Conference of Chief Justices/Conference of 

State Court Administrators (CCJ/COSCA), 

seven state courts have joined the New Mexico 

Center for Language Access (NMCLA), a 

project of the University of New Mexico-Los 

Alamos, to develop and distribute a highquality, affordable language access training 

and qualification program for state court employees. The goal of this training is to improve the quality of language access services 

for limited English proficient (LEP) and nonEnglish speaking individuals.

The final product of this collaborative effort 

will be the Language Access Basic Training 

Suite (LABT Suite) for state courts, an online/

downloadable and easily accessible package 

that includes the following modules: 

1) Theory – an introduction to language access for all court employees; 

2) Practice -- detailed, language-specific 

training for bilingual employees; 

3) Skills Assessment – optional evaluation of 

bilingual employees’ language skills and vocabulary. 

The LABT Suite will focus on language access 

outside the courtroom, providing language 

access training for all judicial employees with 

specialized training for bilingual employees. 

It is being designed to be both affordable and 

easily accessible by court personnel, and will 

provide an option for measuring bilingual 

employees’ language skills and vocabulary. 

The intent is to develop a strong basic training 

curriculum, which can be customized and 

easily updated/revised by NMCLA on behalf 

of state courts nationwide. Collaborating 

courts, in addition to New Mexico, include 

Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, New 

Jersey, and North Carolina. 

For more information about this project, 

please contact Pam Sánchez, Statewide Program Manager for Language Access Services 

at aocpjs@nmcourts.gov.