Summary of State and Local Justice Initiatives 2000

CIVIL JUSTICE: Laws, practices, and procedures

Although the criminal side of the justice system generates wider attention, the civil side is responsible for resolving a wide array of public and private issues, from tenant-landlord disputes, torts, patent infringement cases or constitutional challenges to government actions.

In Massachusetts, an extensive review of three events of the civil justice processes in the Superior Court, District Court and Boston Municipal Court is planned (pending grant funding): expense and difficulty of obtaining appropriate discovery, difficulty in obtaining firm trial dates and the difficulty in determining the appropriate length of time it should take to resolve various kinds of civil cases. This will be a joint project of the court and the Massachusetts Bar Association. Based on the findings, measures will be proposed to move civil cases more efficiently through the system.

The South Dakota Bar Association continues to undertake a number of justice improvement activities and in that connection has involved non-lawyers in a committee studying the civil justice system.