Coalition for Justice

D. PUBLIC TRUST AND CONFIDENCE
IN THE JUSTICE SYSTEM:

Selected State and National Follow-Up Activities

The justice system needs the public’s trust and confidence to work—and maybe even to survive as an independent branch of government.

These high stakes drew nearly 500 people, including almost all state chief justices, community leaders, bar officials and court managers to Washington, DC for the 1999 National Conference on Public Trust and Confidence in the Justice System.

The PT+C sponsors were the Conference of Chief Justices, the American Bar Association, the League of Women Voters, and the Conference State Court Administrators, in cooperation with the National Center for State Courts. The State Justice Institute, ABA, DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, and the Federal Judicial Center funded it.

The sponsors wanted a process, not just an event. As Justice Sandra Day O’Connor told the participants, "The measure of this conference will be what happens when you return home."

The process continues and a lot is happening "at home."

National Efforts

Follow-up to the 1999 conference was led by an Implementation Committee headed by representatives of the ABA, Conference of Chief Justices and the League of Women Voters. It is staffed by the National Center for State Courts and the ABA Coalition for Justice, with financial support from the State Justice Institute.

To carry out a National Action Plan, the project gathers information on the resources which participating national organizations can provide to state and local efforts and provides communication among organizations at all levels. In particular, information on state and local PT&C activities was collected by the ABA in cooperation with the NCSC as part of the 2001 survey that generated this Summary report.

It should be noted that PT&C activities include both those that correct weaknesses in the justice system and those that better communicate the strengths of the system.

State and Local Efforts

To understand what’s happening at the state and local levels to improve public trust and confidence:

Check: www.ncsc.dni.us/ptc.htm
Consult the indexed activities, ordered by state, in the state section of this Summary report.
Consult the list of "justice initiatives" in this Summary report. The ABA maintains that each justice improvement activity that brings together non-lawyers, lawyers and judges almost by definition increases public trust and confidence.

Pamela Casey reported on PT+C activities to the August 2001 meeting of the Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators. These are excerpts from her report.

To date, 47 states, the District of Columbia, and two territories have responded to the [ABA/NCSC] survey. All report efforts to build public trust and confidence in the justice system. At least a few states are working on each of the 15 issues identified during the Conference as contributing to low trust and confidence... A majority is focusing on issues related to judicial isolation, lack of public understanding, and poor customer relations with the public.

Several states also are concentrating on the top priority issues identified during the Conference: (1) unequal treatment in the justice system, (2) high cost of access to the justice system, and (3) lack of public understanding. The efforts to address each of these take a variety of forms as indicated by the following examples:

Unequal treatment in the justice system

Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, Ohio, and Oklahoma are among the states reporting activities to increase diversity across the legal system—from law school through the judiciary.
Minnesota and New Mexico are exploring the routine collection of data regarding litigants’ race and ethnicity to determine where bias in the system may be occurring.
California, Minnesota, Oregon, and Rhode Island are among the states reporting efforts to address linguistic diversity issues. The Vermont Judiciary’s Committee on Fairness and Equal Access to Justice is working with the Office of the Defender General to address the needs of litigants with cognitive disabilities.
The District of Columbia, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, and Vermont are among the states who have established committees or task forces to identify areas and address issues of bias that occur throughout the court process.
The Supreme Court of Illinois established a Special Committee on Capital Cases to assess the fairness of the system. The Committee’s recommendations resulted in new rules governing the trial of capital cases.

High cost of access to the justice system

Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, and Virginia are several of the states with initiatives to improve the judicial process for pro se litigants.
Indiana, Maine, Michigan, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, among others, have initiatives to encourage pro bono and/ or unbundling of legal services for low-income litigants.
Iowa, New Mexico, Ohio, and Utah are a few of the states that use the Internet to lower the cost of access to the justice system.
Nebraska, Nevada, and Vermont are examples of states using mediation and alternative dispute resolution to lower the cost of resolving a dispute.
New York and Washington are among the states working to reduce the complexity of court procedures.

Lack of public understanding

Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Oregon, Utah, and Washington are among the many states engaging in a variety of court outreach efforts such as speaking to community groups, offering courthouse tours, convening town hall meetings, and working with the community on various projects.
Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee are a few of the states that have developed videos to increase public understanding of different aspects of the judicial system. Louisiana and Missouri created videos for high school presentations intended to increase the effectiveness of civics classes.
Colorado, Maryland, and Tennessee are among several states with programs focusing on media relations.
Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina and Vermont represent states that are developing education programs in public schools to help increase public understanding. New York is developing a Public Affairs Web site with interactive "Justice in Schools" programs for teachers and students.
Indiana, Ohio, and Utah are three of the states that have improved their Web sites to provide better information to the public.

These examples highlight only some of the many activities taking place across the country. The 1999 Conference also identified 16 strategies for addressing public trust. At least two states are using each strategy... A majority of the states are focusing on making the courts more inclusive and outreaching and improving external communication. Many states also are improving their management and use of information technology to address public trust and confidence issues.

More information about each state’s efforts to increase public trust is available on the Web site (http://www.ncsc.dni.us/PTC.HTM), one component of the National Action Plan: A Guide for State and National Organizations. The National Action Plan was crafted following the National Conference on Public Trust and Confidence in the Justice System to promote on-going dialogue, facilitate the sharing of information on activities and best practices, coordinate the actions of state and national organizations, and support court improvement. Conference participants recognized that the enthusiasm and energy created at the Conference would eventually weaken without an organized structure to support communications between individuals, groups, and organizations engaged in public trust and confidence efforts.