Judicial Performance Management: What is the World Thinking Now?

09/17/21 • 38 min

IACA’s Global Conversation Podcast Summer 2021

Measuring judicial performance is a burning topic in many countries around the globe. How to balance the need for timely case resolution with the necessity for just results is a question many court experts have often pondered. Today, our panel of international court professionals will discuss the implications of measuring judicial performance. This episode delves into a number of questions surrounding measuring judicial performance:

· How do you use the performance measures?

· Who gets to see the data?

· What effects does automating judicial performance measurement have?

· Do you tie judicial performance to an overall strategic plan?

· What advice do these court professionals have for the rest of us?

Our panel today Includes:

Angéline Rutazana: Inspector General for the Judiciary of Rwanda

Niceson Karungi: E-Justice Expert with Synergy International Systems

Dr. Aseel Zimmo: Advisor to the Chief Justice and Minister of Justice, Bahrain

Thomas G. Bruton: Clerk of Court, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois

IACA’s Global Conversation Podcast Summer 2021

· How do you use the performance measures?

· Who gets to see the data?

· What effects does automating judicial performance measurement have?

· Do you tie judicial performance to an overall strategic plan?

· What advice do these court professionals have for the rest of us?

Our panel today Includes:

Angéline Rutazana: Inspector General for the Judiciary of Rwanda

Niceson Karungi: E-Justice Expert with Synergy International Systems

Dr. Aseel Zimmo: Advisor to the Chief Justice and Minister of Justice, Bahrain

Thomas G. Bruton: Clerk of Court, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois

Previous Episode

Courts of Record, Judicial Selection, Should Everyone Get a Lawyer? What Can We Learn from Challenges Local Courts Face Every Day?

Tuesday, August 17, 2021, Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode

Local Courts can offer incredible opportunity for both defendants and for the community. They are positioned precisely at a point to curtail dangerous behavior before it grows worse. The array of problem-solving courts nationally, often managed on a shoestring budget, is astounding. This does not make up for the fact that local courts are often neglected. They are frequently disparaged. In some cases, they manifest structural flaws that clearly need to be corrected. All the while, we remember that local courts are the place where most of the public obtain their first-hand experience of courts and justice.

This month we look at some of the challenges local courts face including:

· How should local court judges be selected?

· Should all local court judges be attorneys?

· Should all defendants in matters before local courts be represented by counsel?

· Should local courts be courts of record?

We will also continue our discussion of three recent Harvard Law Review articles about local courts. "Criminal Municipal Courts" by Alexandra Natapoff, "Kangaroo Courts" by Shaun Ossei-Owusu, and "Abolish Municipal Courts" by Brendan Roediger.

The Honorable Edward Spillane is the Presiding Municipal Judge for the City of College Station, Texas and has served in this position since May 2002. Prior to this, he served as an Assistant District Attorney for Brazos County for 8 years and as an associate for the law firm Fulbright & Jaworski for 2 years. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University, and his law degree from the University of Chicago.

The Honorable Mary Logan has been practicing law for over 27 years as a licensed attorney in California and in Washington. As a Judge, she was elected Presiding Judge of the Spokane Municipal Court from 2009 through 2014. Among her many accomplishments, she is one of the “core engineers” of the City of Spokane’s Community Court and presides over the City’s Veteran’s Therapeutic Court.

Courtney Whiteside is the Director of the St. Louis County Municipal Division where she provides educational opportunities to municipal divisions and clerks through various committees and educational groups in the state while promoting cultural and procedural reforms. Courtney started in 2012 as a court clerk then went to Jefferson City to work with the Office of State Courts Administrator and on to the Missouri Supreme Court to serve as the state’s municipal division courts monitor.

Bettye King is a Court Administrator for the Municipal Court for the City of Birmingham, Alabama. She has served in this capacity since 2003. Bettye earned her Master’s Degree in Public Administration and Bachelor’s Degree in Pre-Law Criminal Justice from Auburn University. She was the Patricia Harris Fellowship recipient and awarded Outstanding Achievement in Public Administration. She earned her Juris Doctorate from the Jones School of Law.

Rashida Davis serves as the Court Administrator and Chief Clerk for the Municipal Court of Atlanta, Georgia. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Georgia State University. Rashida graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Law Cum Laude. She is a licensed attorney with the State of Georgia. Her legal background primarily focused on litigation and criminal defense.

Next Episode

Courts and Cyberattacks! It’s Not “If” – It’s “When”

Tuesday, September 21, 2021, Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode

Threats from cyberattacks can be easily ignored by courts. There are many rationalizations:

“Our court is too small to worry about cyberattacks”

“We have a great firewall that keeps everything out”

“Our employees change their passwords every three months just like clockwork”

“Everyone has been told not to open suspicious email attachments”

Often the perspective can be “We’re good”

You are good until the morning you fire up your desktop only to find a black screen with the words “pay $50,000 in bitcoin and we will send you the codes to unlock your case management system.” Cyber-experts continue to advise that it isn’t a matter of “if,” it is a matter of “when.”

In this episode we are talking to court professionals, several of whom have suffered through a cyberattack in their court. We’ll be exploring questions including:

· How did the court respond to the cyberattack?

· What could management have done differently?

· What could they have done to have prevented a cyberattack in the first place?

· What advice does our panel of experts have for the rest of us?

Our panel today includes:

Kevin Bowling is the Court Administrator for the 20th Circuit Court in Ottawa County, Michigan Kevin is also co-chair of the National Center for State Courts’ Joint Technology Committee and has helped develop three resource bulletins to assist court managers with handling cyberattacks. He is a Past President of the National Association for Court Management, Co-Chair of the DOJ Global Advisory Committee. Kevin received his B.A. in Political Science/Public Administration from Providence College, Providence, Rhode Island; a M.S. in Judicial Administration from the University of Denver College of Law; a J.D. from Thomas M.Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan, and is a Fellow of the Institute for Court Management.

Julie Hidy is the Court Administrator for the Probate Court in Fayette County, Ohio A graduate of the Supreme Court of Ohio’s Certified Court Management Program in 2014, Julia has been seasoned by events such as an extensive conversion of the case management system in 2014, Fayette County’s extensive ransomware/malware attack of June, 2019, subsequent case management update in September, 2019, and the COVID-19 global pandemic. As the Fayette County Courthouse never closed during COVID-19, Julia managed a court staff that never worked from home and navigated court-in-session with restrictions and distanced hearings in person.

Casey Kennedy is the Director for the Office of Court Information Services at the Office of State Court Administration in Austin, Texas. . Casey is currently the chair of the Court Information Technology Officer Consortium, a national organization of Court IT professionals. He holds a BA in Computer Science from The University of Texas at Austin.

Jorge Basto is the Director of IT Programs for the Cherokee County Clerk of Courts in Canton, Georgia. Prior to joining the Clerk’s Office, Mr. Basto served as Georgia’s Chief Information Officer for 15 years with the Judicial Council’s Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC). Jorge is a graduate of Georgia State University.

Montrella Jackson is the Court Administrator for the Akron Municipal Court, in Akron, Ohio. She received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science and the Arts and subsequently earned a law degree from the University of Akron School of Law.