SJI NEWSLETTER SJI NEWSLETTER

In this Issue 

Page 1 

Volume 25, No. 10 

SJI Awards FY 2015 Third Quarter Grants 

SJI Grantees

When Tweeting or posting to 

Facebook about your SJI Grant, 

be sure to use the hashtag 

#SJIGrant 

You can access our latest posts 

via Facebook and Twitter. 

SJI Awards 3rd 

Quarter Grants 

1 

Utah Rule 26 2 

NJC Course Offerings 2 

Use of Technology to 

Better Serve SRLs 

3 

The SJI Board of Directors met on June 29, 2015, at 

the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in Portland to 

make decisions on quarterly grant applications and 

awarded a total of fifteen (15) new grants. 

The Board awarded a Strategic Initiatives Grant 

(SIG) to support Phase III of the Human Trafficking 

and the State Courts Collaborative. With additional 

funding, the HT Collaborative will continue to provide resources, training, and technical assistance to 

the state courts on this critical issue. 

Two (2) Project Grants were approved: the Hawaii 

Judiciary to complete a workload and workflow 

assessment of Court Operations staff; and, the North 

Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts to conduct the statewide Chief Justice's 2015-2017 MultiDisciplinary Study Commission. 

Eight (8) Technical Assistance (TA) Grants were 

approved, including: assistance to the NCSC to deJuly 2015 

velop a peacemaking model in the state courts; a 

courthouse design project for the Mohave County 

Superior Court in Arizona; assistance to the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts for a statewide data repository project; funding to the Missouri 

Office of the State Courts 

Administrator to support a 

collection of best practices in 

municipal courts; a planning 

project for the Superior 

Court of Santa Barbara 

County, California; assistance to the 11th Judicial 

Circuit of Florida for its Miami-Dade Civil Courthouse 

P3 Effective Solution; and, 

case management improvement projects for the 15th

Judicial Circuit Magistrate’s 

Court in Florida and the Appellate Courts of the State of Washington. 

Four (4) Curriculum Adaptation & Training (CAT) 

Grants were approved: support to the Virginia Supreme Court to deliver a workshop via distance 

learning; the 10th Judicial Circuit of Florida to deliver court communications programming to personnel; and, two grants to the National Judicial College 

(NJC) for development of two courses, including a 

web version of Taking the Bench: An Online Course 

for New Judges, and an advanced water rights 

course, Established Water Rights, Changing Conditions. 
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E-SJI News Volume 25, No. 10 July 2015 

In 2011, the Utah Supreme Court enacted a robust revision to Rule 26, 

which governs discovery in civil cases filed in the Utah district courts. 

The reforms reflected three years of debate among its key stakeholders, 

leading to seven key components comprising the amended portions of 

the rules, briefly summarized as follows: 

1. the cost of discovery should be proportional to what is at stake in 

the litigation; 

2. party seeking discovery bears the burden; 

3. court has authority to order the requesting party to pay some or all 

of the costs of discovery; 

4. parties must automatically disclose the documents and physical 

evidence - failure to do so may result in inadmissibility of undisclosed evidence; 

5. tiered discovery assignments due to complexities; 

Located in Reno, Nevada, The National Judicial College (NJC) has a 50 

year history of offering education to judges. The NJC has received support from SJI to develop and deliver educational programming to the 

nation’s judiciary. The NJC launched Courses Across the Country to 

bring is educational programs to additional locations, attract more participants, and maximize institutional professional development funds and 

scholarships that many judges acquire to attend. The SJI-funded foundational course, Essential Skills for Appellate Judges, was recently offered 

through this model. Additional upcoming courses include: 

Utah Rule 26 and the Impact on Discovery Practice 

6. discovery above assigned tier must be proportional and have an 

approved budget; and, 

7. parties may either accept a report from the opposing party’s expert witness or depose the opposing party’s expert witness, but 

not both. 

The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) conducted an empirical 

evaluation of the short-term and long-term impacts of the Rule 26 

revisions. 

According to the report, Utah’s district court judges, participating via 

focus groups, reflected positively on the impact of the Rule 26 revisions for several specific reasons: 

revisions leveled the playing field between smaller and larger law 

firms insofar as larger firms could no longer bury the small firms 

with excessive discovery requests; 

automatic disclosure requirements forced collection agencies to 

interact more constructively with defendants, who were disproportionately self-represented; and, 

judges expressed greater confidence in their authority to enforce 

the disclosure rules by excluding evidence from trial due to the 

explicit language in Rule 37(h) mandating exclusion. 

The full report can be reviewed and downloaded from the NCSC. 

SJI awarded a Strategic Initiatives Grant (SJI-13-P-201) to the NCSC 

to further the work accomplished in Utah and elevate its relevance to a 

national level through the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) Civil 

Justice Initiative. In partnership with the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS), the Civil Justice Initiative is developing guidelines and best practices for civil litigation 

based on the best practices identified across the U.S., and other applicable methodologies. The project will also provide templates for civil 

rules and operational practices that can be adopted nationwide. 

NJC Course Offerings Across the U.S. 

Advanced Evidence – Big Sky, MT August 10-13/2015. 

Enhancing Judicial Bench Skills – Santa Fe, NM September 28 through October 1, 2015. 

Handling Capital Cases – New Orleans, LA November 2-5, 2015. 

Enhancing Judicial Bench Skills – Bar Harbor, ME May 23-26, 2016. 

Advanced Evidence – Scottsdale, AZ November 14 -17, 2016. 

Registration for these, and all other in-person and online NJC courses 

can be found on the NJC website. 
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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 

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. 

E-SJI News Volume 25, No. 10 July 2015 

Earlier this month, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) released its 2015 

Trends in State Courts. The annual publication highlighted leadership and technology featuring several articles in covering each area. 

Featured in the article “Litigant Portals Provide a New Approach to Help SelfRepresented Litigants,” by Dr. Thomas Clarke, is mention of an SJI grant (SJI-14-P041) to the NCSC and the Self-Represented Litigation Network (SRLN). This Strategic Initiatives Grant (SIG) is enabling the NCSC and the SRLN to develop technical 

requirements for future court customer service portals for self-represented litigants. 

The project also includes assessments of programs and technologies that provide 

remote services for self-represented litigants. Included in the evaluation are the court 

systems in California, Utah, Alaska, Minnesota, and Maryland, as well as a the Orange County, California, Superior Court. 

Results from this project will be available later in 2015. 

Trends Publication Highlights the Use of 

Technology to Better Serve SRLs