Volume 23, No. 7 April 2013 

E-SJI NEWS SJI NEWS

In this Issue 

FY 2013 2nd Quarter 

Grant Awards 

1 

New Board Member 

Sworn In 

2 

Immigration and State 

Court Records 

2 

Human Trafficking and 

the State Courts 

Collaborative 

3 

 

Page 1 

SJI Awards Second Quarter Grants for FY 2013 

The Board met on April 8, 

2013, to make decisions on 

FY 2013, 2nd quarter grant 

applications. 

A total of 14 grants were 

awarded during this meeting. One Project Grant was 

awarded to the National 

Center for State Courts 

(NCSC) to develop and 

pilot specialized jury instructions on implicit bias. Led by the NCSC and 

Project Implicit, this grant will support the drafting 

of model jury instructions on implicit bias, pilot their 

effectiveness using a mock jury, and disseminate the 

research findings to state court judges. 

A total of eight (8) Technical Assistance (TA) 

Grants were approved, including grants to: Volusia 

County, Florida, Clerk of the Circuit Court to conduct an e-courtroom assessment and redesign in 

preparation for statewide e-filing; Massachusetts 

Trial Court Administrative Office of the Court 

(AOC) to further statewide language access improvement efforts by developing a model courthouse; New Mexico AOC to continue ensuring language access in the courts by continued delivery of 

training to judicial employees; 20th Circuit Court of 

Ottawa County, Michigan, to develop statewide 

juvenile justice system data sharing capabilities; 

Superior Court of the Virgin Islands to conduct strategic planning using the High Performance Court 

(HPC) Framework; 9th Judicial Circuit Court of 

Orange County, Florida, to ensure court compliance 

with Florida law regarding guardians and their LEP 

wards; and two grants to the NCSC for development 

of a model virtual courthouse setting with integrated 

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technology, as well as the creation of resource for 

state courts on responding to courthouse security 

incidents. 

Five (5) Curriculum Adaptation & Training (CAT) 

Grants were also approved, including grants to: Legal Momentum to enhance their online Intimate Partner Sexual Abuse course; County of York in Pennsylvania to develop a model guardianship training 

and community education program; Nebraska Judicial Branch Education Division of the AOC for the 

design and delivery of continuing education to 

Guardian Ad Litems; Superior Court of the Virgin 

Islands for judicial training, inclusive of the NCSC’s 

CourtTools curriculum; and, the National Consortium on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts 

(NCREFC), which will develop training on objective 

(race-neutral) decision-making processes for judicial 

officers and administrators. 

SJI also welcomed National Association for Court 

Management (NACM) President Pam Harris and 

President-Elect David Slayton to the meeting. Ms. 

Harris and Mr. Slayton delivered a briefing on the 

status of SJI-funded NACM projects, and discussed 

the upcoming NACM Annual Conference, July 14-

18, 2013 in San Antonio, Texas. 
E-SJI News Volume 23, No. 7 April 2013 

Page 2 

Immigration and State Court Records 

SJI began using the Strategic Initiatives Grants 

(SIG) program in FY 2008 to address immigration issues in the state courts at a national 

impact level. The Center for Public Policy 

Studies (CPPS) was awarded a SIG (SJI-08-P138) to identify the major challenges and opportunities for state courts in addressing immigration issues in several pilot states. 

Subsequent grant awards expanded the impact 

of this project to additional states, in addition 

to generating bench guides and other key materials on this important issue. CPPS (in coordination with SJI) also developed working 

relationships with key federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security/

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services 

(USCIS), DHS/Immigration and Customs 

Enforcement (ICE), and DOJ/Executive Office 

of Immigration Review (EOIR). Over the 

years, these working relationships have led to 

a significant increase in understanding of the 

critical state court role in federal and state 

immigration law and policy, including a focus 

on human trafficking and the importance of 

state court records in immigration proceedings. 

The rights of a non-citizen under federal immigration law can be impacted by their involvement in a state court criminal, family, juvenile, 

or civil case. This can make the application 

process to the USCIS for naturalization and 

other immigration benefits heavily dependent 

on the contents and quality of state court records. Access to court records is also needed 

by unaccompanied juveniles and immigrant 

crime victims, and state court records documenting family relationships can be critical to 

processing immigration matters. However, 

there are significant misalignments between 

the USCIS and state court systems that make 

the system especially difficult for immigrants, 

state court personnel, and federal immigration 

hearing officers. Applicants for immigrant 

benefits must produce certified copies of state 

court documents regarding cases in which they 

were involved. In general, USCIS does not 

allow these documents to be submitted electronically, even if the transmission comes from 

the state court. Filling these requests can be 

time consuming for court personnel. Furthermore, contents and quality of court records can 

vary greatly by state, and even within a state, 

so that some court actions may not appear in 

records at all. 

With SJI support, in a new project CPPS will 

address four strategic priorities: 1) enhance 

state court capacity to efficiently, securely, 

and effectively exchange records with USCIS; 

2) increase the ease of access to state court 

records by self-represented immigrant court 

users; 3) build effective partnerships between 

the state courts and USCIS in two pilot states 

(Georgia and Iowa); and 4) create a model approach and tools for effective state court/USCIS 

records exchange that can be used across the 

United States. CPPS will form and facilitate 

state court/USCIS records exchange development and implementation teams to assess the 

uses of state court records, and document best 

practices. The Georgia and Iowa AOCs, in 

addition to state court clerks of courts associations and USCIS field offices are committed to 

this project. The two states illustrate both ends 

of the court record spectrum – court recordkeeping in Georgia is mostly locally controlled 

and paper-based; whereas Iowa is implementing 

a centralized electronic and document filing 

system that will make court records paperless 

statewide. 

The project will result in a model state court/

USCIS records exchange planning and technical 

assistance approach that can be used across the 

United States; best practices for records exchange and serving immigrants; and records 

exchange training curricula that has been tested 

in two states and will be adaptable. 

New SJI Board Member Sworn In 

Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman of the State of 

New York and the New York Court of Appeals was officially sworn in by SJI Board 

Chairman Chief Justice Jim Hannah as a member of the Board of Directors on Sunday, April 

7, 2013. 

Chief Judge Lippman joins ten other Board 

members appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. By law, the President 

must appoint six state court judges, one state 

court administrator, and four members of the 

public (no more than two of whom may be of 

the same political party). 

Chief Judge Lippman has held his current 

position since 2009. He has spent his entire 

legal career in the New York state court system, serving for 40 years in a variety of roles, 

including Chief Administrative Judge of all 

New York State Courts from 1996 to 2007. 
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 

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 23, No. 7 April 2013 

NAWJ and Legal Momentum Join the Human 

Trafficking and the State Courts Collaborative 

SJI support has enabled the Center for Public 

Policy Studies/The National Judicial College/

Center for Court Innovation (CPPS/NJC/CCI) 

to recently form a Human Trafficking and 

the State Courts Collaborative focused on 4 

strategic priorities: 

1. Increasing understanding and awareness 

about the challenges faced by state courts 

in dealing with cases involving trafficking victims and their families, and traffickers; 

2. Developing and testing state and local 

approaches for assessing and addressing 

the impact of human trafficking victims 

and defendants in the state courts; 

3. Enhancing state and local court capacity 

to improve court services affected by 

human trafficking-related cases processing demands; and, 

4. Building effective national, state, and 

local partnerships for addressing the impacts of human trafficking case processing in the state courts. 

The SJI Board established Human Trafficking 

and the State Courts as a Priority Investment 

Area on October 1, 2012. 

This month, the National Association of 

Women Judges (NAWJ) and Legal Momentum/National Judicial Education Program 

(NJEP) officially joined the Collaborative. 

NAWJ has made human trafficking a priority 

over the past 2 years, and with SJI support, has 

been able to offer educational programming to 

their membership on this critical issue. 

With a recent SJI grant (SJI-13-E-090), NJEP 

will add a module on human trafficking to it 

popular course, Intimate Partner Sexual 

Abuse: Adjudicating This Hidden Dimension of 

Domestic Violence Cases. This web course has 

proved to be highly successful, as over 13,000 

learners have taken the course. It is available 

free of charge at www.njep-ipsacourse.org. 

SJI appreciates the commitment of NAWJ and 

Legal Momentum to supporting the state courts 

on this issue, and commends both organizations 

for joining the Human Trafficking and the State 

Courts Collaborative.