NCJ Number
149574
Journal
Justice System Journal Volume: 16 Issue: 3 Dated: (1994) Pages: 101-112
Date Published
1994
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This article summarizes common issues in six State reports on long-range planning for the improvement of the judicial systems over the next 30 years.
Abstract
The reports are from Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Utah, and Virginia. Evident in the six reports is a focus on the institutionalization of planning and change. A key to successful futures planning is the development and incorporation of mechanisms that accommodate change and preserve the public order. Each State shows an awareness of the sweeping demographic changes that have occurred and will continue over the next three decades. Particular attention is given to population changes that will increase court caseloads. Changes in the growth and ethnic diversity of the population will pressure the States' judicial systems in three major ways: access, private dispute resolution, and ethnic representation and judicial selection. In some fashion, each State report comments on the need to improve access to justice. This includes both physical and procedural access. Some States' recommendations to achieve the goals of physical and procedural access include standardization of court facilities design to reduce physical barriers, adequate translation services for those non-English speaking persons to remove language barriers, the creation of outside satellite court facilities to accommodate other population centers, and the expansion of service hours. The reports recognize that a solution to some of the current problems of the courts is to shift some cases into private dispute resolution. Several of the States' reports recommend external resolution mechanisms to be overseen by an appropriate governmental administrative office or agency. Over half of the State reports mention ethnic diversity as a priority issue in judicial selection. 22 references