The ABA Judicial Division created the Judicial Outreach Network as a means of increasing public trust and confidence in the justice system. The Judicial Outreach Network provides a home for those actively addressing the concerns raised in the ABA survey, Perceptions of the U.S. Justice System. The survey reported that only 26% of respondents could be termed "highly knowledgeable" about the American justice system. When asked how they would prefer to learn about the justice system, 75% wanted to learn from judges.

The primary goal of the Judicial Outreach Network Web site is to supply you and other judges nationwide with outreach programs that can easily accommodate the needs of their local communities.

The Judicial Outreach Network provides resources to you enabling you to interact with local schools, community organizations, and community members to create a dialogue on the judicial system. The Network gives you and other judges and lawyers the opportunity to make a difference in local communities by sharing your best outreach practices and experiences with a national audience. The Network serves as a reliable, web-based resource for materials, training, tips, peer consultation and idea exchange for judicial and community outreach thanks to your support.

• Judicial outreach is a valuable tool to increase public understanding of the court system and promote public confidence in the entire Judicial System.
• Many judges and lawyers have created and want to share outstanding and award winning programs that are easy to perform, of minimal or no cost, and have a proven records of success. The Judicial Outreach Network Committee was created to gather information on these programs so they can be duplicated by other judges and lawyers in their community.
• Judges and lawyers who wish to share their programs for others to duplicate in their communities can do so by visiting the Judicial Outreach Networks Web site or by completing an easy to use program summary template.
• The site also acts as a clearinghouse of successful outreach programs whereby judges and lawyers can obtain outreach ideas.   A searchable archive of these programs can be found on the Judicial Outreach Network Web site.

Hon. Linda Strite Murnane

HOW TO DEAL WITH THE MEDIA ETHICALLY AND STILL WIN
By Judge Bob Pirraglia, R.I. District Court (Ret.)

In earlier times, the lack of the public’s understanding about courts and judges; that is, how they worked and why, while no better than today, didn’t result in a diminishment of the people’s esteem for the law and for the judges who gave the law life, for in those kinder times, most people were willing to support the decisions of judges and juries even if they did not comprehend or agree with them.

I am sure that I don’t have to convince any of you that such is surely not the case today and that unlike the case a generation ago, the decisions of courts and judges are increasingly under attack by a public so skeptical of the institutions that exercise power over them that their lack of legal literacy has created a crisis of confidence for judges and for courts at every level, all across the country.

The antidote? Even more judicial outreach and communication to the public by the nation’s lawyers but also judges and to make certain these efforts to reach the people with the message of the courts work, more contact and interaction, indeed much more contact and interaction, with the media. Read more

• Linda Strite Murnane, Chair
• Toni E. Clarke, Vice Chair
• Margarita Solano Bernal
• Tyrone T. Butler
• Joan Davenport
• Stephanie Domitrovich
• Elieen W. Hollowell
• Natalie E. Hudson
• Kellyann M. Lekar
• Christel E. Marquardt
• Errol H. Powell
• Daniel F. Solomon
• Staff: Gilda Fairley

Click here to contact committee members.

Click here to complete the Judicial Outreach Network Program Summary Form

If you would like to subscribe to the Judicial Outreach Network e-mail discussion group, please click here.

The Judicial Division's inaugural National Judicial Outreach Conference took place in Memphis, Tennessee, from April 30 to May 1, 2004. Click here to read a summary of the conference from former Judicial Outreach Network Chair Jack L. Brown.

The 2003 Judicial Division Summit on Judicial Outreach took place in Seattle, Washington, as a part of the ABA Midyear Meeting on February 7, 2003. Click here to read a summary of the summit from former Judicial Outreach Network Chair Jack L. Brown.