In one major 2015 study, the National Center for State Courts said 76% of litigants represented in the study were unrepresented in civil matters, nearly double from two decades earlier. Read the full story from Law360.

If it means working with governors or governing bodies like the National Center for State Courts (with whom we’ve partnered to develop court data standards), all the better. Which is all to say: We’re collecting data and stumping for better data infrastructure any way we can. Read the full story from The Smart Set.

Unlike state courts, the Aurora Municipal Court does not require any formal certification of its interpreters. State court interpreters must pass a written and oral exam to obtain their certification, according to the National Center for State Courts. Additional stipulations are required in federal court. Read the full story from the Sentinel.

Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court Tani Cantil-Sakauye is the recipient of the 2019 Sandra Day O’Connor Award for the Advancement of Civics Education, presented annually by the National Center for State Courts. Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye will be presented the award in October during the annual meeting of the California Judges Association and California Lawyers Association in Monterey, California. Read the full story from YubaNet.com.

O’Connor, who has served on the Conference of Chief Justices and the National Center for State Courts, said over time people have viewed bail as a means of keeping people behind bars — not a way to set terms for release while awaiting court. Read the full story from Dayton Daily News.

In most other states, when a disciplinary commission finds that a judge committed misconduct and should be sanctioned publicly, the state’s highest court reviews the findings, said Cynthia Gray, director of the Center for Judicial Ethics at the National Center for State Courts. Read the full story from The Baltimore Sun.

The National Center for State Courts reported 32 million Americans are summoned for jury duty each year. Of those, 3 million report to jury duty, and half of those are chosen to serve on a jury. Read the full story from Valdosta Daily Times.

Utah is one of at least 10 states where municipalities have developed homeless courts, according to the National Center for State Courts. Read the full story from The Salt Lake Tribune.

Legal scholars are now tapping into data sets that, previously, only social science researchers had used, such as data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Center for State Courts, as well as massive epidemiological and health care data sets. Law schools are now hiring many J.D./Ph.D.s. They bring the social science tradition and the ability and the desire to look at large-scale data. Read the full story from the Cornell Chronicle.

The US National Center for State Courts found that in 2016, in 15 of the US state courts, 60 per cent of all contract cases were disputes between landlords and tenants (contract cases accounted for about 47 per cent of the total case load). This means that just landlord-tenant disputes constituted about one-fourth of all civil cases in these states. Based on this data, one could argue that there is a problem with US state laws governing the relationships between landlords and tenants. Read the full story from ThePrint.

"This decision will make it harder for courts to figure out racial discriminatory motives where they do exist, to the extent they do exist, because line drawers will be able to say that 'All of our decisions were to gain partisan advantage,'" said Rebecca Green, co-director of the Election Law Program, a joint project of the William & Mary Law School and the National Center for State Courts. Read the full story from WHTR.

Fourth Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Duane Slone, whose groundbreaking work in the courtroom has given new hope to many battling addiction issues, was recently awarded the National Center for State Courts' Distinguished Service Award. Read the full story from the Standard Banner.

Since 2014, the Court Navigator Program in New York has deployed and supervised non-lawyers to provide general information, written materials and individual assistance to eligible unrepresented plaintiffs in the city’s civil courts. In a 2016 report, the American Bar Foundation and the National Center for State Courts recommend replicating the program across the city and state, and in other states too. Read the full story from Pew.

Two Nevada court professionals are attending training at the National Center for State Courts as part of the 2019 Institute for Court Management Fellows Program. Read the full story from Elko Daily Free Press.

According to Pew, there is not standardized data on state court trial rates, but they are also generally low. Pew's report said that in many state courts in 2017, fewer than 3 percent of criminal cases went to jury trials, citing information from a National Center for State Courts database. Read the full story from the Hill.

Statistics about trial rates in state courts are harder to come by because each state runs its own court system and no standardized record-keeping system covers all states. But trial rates in criminal cases tend to be very low in the states for which data is available, according to a database maintained by the National Center for State Courts, an independent research organization focused on the state judiciary. Read the full story from Pew Research.

According to the National Center for State Courts, plaintiffs in a wide variety of civil cases are twice as likely to win when only their side is represented by an attorney as they are when there is counsel on both sides. Read the full story from Governing.

The National Center for State Courts had an initiative whereby they were assisting a number of jurisdictions in putting together these kinds of emergency response bench books, or guides. Read the full story from NetNebraska.org.

A 2017 study by the American Bar Association and the National Center for State Courts determined that legal technicians in Washington "are adequately trained for the work they're doing." The study also said the program is "effective at providing inexpensive legal help to people of modest means." Read the full story from Las Cruces Sun News.

Citing the 2019 National Center for State Courts report on judicial salaries, Kemp said the pay scale for Arkansas' associate justices ranks 26th among state supreme courts in the U.S. Meanwhile, the report found that Arkansas Court of Appeals and circuit judges' salaries rank 18th and 16th, respectively, among comparable courts in other states. Read the full story from the Arkansas Democrat Daily.

Tara Kunkel, a principal court management consultant with the National Center for State Courts, added that programs such as Buffalo’s Opioid Intervention Court, a model that is now spreading to other counties in the region, are thinking about the whole family when working with someone who has experienced a non-fatal overdose. Judges handing out sentences such as free family memberships to the YMCA is one example, she said. Read the full story from Education Dive.

Using "Justice For All" grant money from the National Center for State Courts and the Public Welfare Foundation, ALSC placed AmeriCorps members at six tribally operated health care facilities to address civil issues that can harm health, like family disputes. Read the full story from Law 360.

According to the National Center for State Courts, there are 10 states in which appellate judges are tied to a district in some way. Read the full story from witf.

In 2015, the National Center for State Courts conducted its annual “State of State Courts” poll to gauge public perception of the court system with a focus on three main areas — customer service, inefficiency and bias. The results of that survey indicated minorities have less confidence and trust in the court system, with only 32% of African Americans responding that they believe courts provide equal justice to all. Respondents also generally believed that African Americans and the poor receive worse treatment by the courts. Read the full story from the Courier Journal.

Evaluative data will not be publicly released until the National Center for State Courts, or NCSC, has had an opportunity to review and analyze the data, which it will likely begin doing in May. But according to Utah Supreme Court Justice Deno Himonas, who has been instrumental in developing the pilot, between its launch last September and April 4, 2019, there were 1,021 case filings under the ODR program, and returns of service in 573, or 56% — a marked improvement over the baseline response rate of about 15%. Read the full story from Law 360.

Text messages were initially used by some courts to remind people to report for jury duty, said Bill Raftery, a senior analyst with the National Center for State Courts. Read the full story from Fox 8 Cleveland.

County officials were notified about the problems at 595 Newark Ave. more than 25 years ago. Now the cost is nearly 10 times what the county originally estimated. A 1988 study by the National Center for State Courts showed that the administration building was “functionally unsatisfactory in terms of circulation, structural, and environmental systems.” Read the full article from HudsonReporter.com.

Many other judges around the country have faced punishment over online behavior, according to a list maintained by the Center for Judicial Ethics at the National Center for State Courts in Virginia. Read the full story from Commercial Appeal.

Legislative efforts to rein in judicial power have manifested in different ways over the years, said William Raftery, a senior analyst at the National Center for State Courts. Read the full article from Law360.

Although it often flies under the radar, court costs and fees have grown rapidly in the past 10 years, according to research from the Brennan Center and the National Center for State Courts, and they can add up quickly for anyone who comes into contact with any court system. Many people simply can’t afford to pay them, which can wreak havoc on their lives. Read the full article from Law 360.

Ohio residents speak about 150 languages, according to Romero. For some languages such as Nepali and Somali, interpreters can only be registered — instead of certified — because the National Center for State Courts offers no oral exams in their languages, Romero said. Read the full story from the Columbia Dispatch.

The National Center for State Courts said that a decline in filing volume, and resultant notions that courts are outliving their usefulness, are cause for concern. Read the full story from the New Jersey Law Journal.

Vidrine’s case was one of 4,045 new felony cases randomly assigned to the 12 Orleans Parish criminal court judges in 2016, according to the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a nonprofit watchdog that compiles a yearly report on judicial efficiency. Performance measures from the National Center for State Courts say 98 percent of felony criminal cases should be closed within a year’s time. But as the MCC noted, in 2016, roughly a third of felony cases in New Orleans had been open longer than a year. Read the full story from nola.com.

The National Center for State Courts says the number one complaint citizens have about jury duty is the waiting — waiting for orientation to begin, waiting in the hallway during last-minute motions, waiting to find out who’ll be impaneled. Read the full story from the Daily Leader.

National Center for State Courts will conduct research, develop benchmarks, and advise state courts on how to improve efficiency in criminal case processing. Read the full story from Inside Philanthropy.

A recent survey by the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) found that 59 percent of registered voters agree that “state courts are not doing enough to empower regular people to navigate the court system without an attorney.” And, despite some reservations, most are willing to try using web-based tools to settle certain kinds of disputes more expeditiously and efficiently. Read the full story from Pew.

There are three essential components for ODR in this context, said Paul Embley, the CIO and technology division director at the National Center for State Courts — that it operates exclusively online, that it is explicitly designed to assist litigants in resolving disputes or cases and that it is supported by the legal system. Read the full story from GovTech.

Justice Rhys S. Hodge, Chief Justice of the Virgin Islands Supreme Court is the recipient of the 2018 National Center for State Courts' (NCSC) Distinguished Service Award. This award is presented annually to those who have made significant contributions to the justice system and who have supported the mission of NCSC. Read the full story from the Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands.

Kentucky is one of 11 states to receive a Justice for All planning grant from the National Center for State Courts. The Justice for All project supports Access to Justice Commissions in their efforts to form partnerships with stakeholders in the civil justice community. The grant is supported by funding from the Public Welfare Foundation and the Kresge Foundation. Read the full story from Glasgow Daily Times.

As for the “smarter” part, the court should follow the example of the court in Washington County from a few years ago. It should seek a grant from the State Justice Institute (a federally-funded entity) and use that grant to hire the Justice Management Institute or the National Center for State Courts. Consultants would assess how the court currently manages its work and suggest management changes to allow more efficiency and effectiveness. Read the full story from the Register-Guard.

The effort stems from a report compiled by the National Center for State Courts, brought in last year to review Spokane County Superior Court's case processing practices. Read the full story from Inlander.

Experts with a range of perspectives came together Nov. 30 in Arlington, Virginia, to discuss online dispute resolution in a session organized by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the National Center for State Courts. Read the full story from Pew.

Judges at Georgia’s Court of Appeals and superior courts earn, on average, more than their counterparts in other states, while justices at the Supreme Court of Georgia earn close to the national average for state high court jurists, according to a study by the National Center for State Courts. Read the full story from the Daily Report.

While primarily used by attorneys, the use by pro-se litigants who may not have the same level of technical proficiency or legal knowledge could create access to justice issues, as the National Center for State Courts has addressed. Read the full story from Legal Solutions Blog.

The $50-per-day rate would put Maine at the top of the pay scale for jurors nationally after remaining near the bottom for decades, according to the National Center for State Courts in Williamsburg, Virginia. In New England, Massachusetts pays $50 per day beginning on the fourth day of jury duty. New Hampshire pays $20, Rhode Island pays $15, and Vermont pays between $15 and $20. Read the full story from Bangor Daily News.

“It is a power of the jury that the jury has always had.... And as long as we have jury trials it probably always will exist,” says Paula Hannaford-Agor, director of the Center for Jury Studies at the National Center for State Courts. Read the full story from The Christian Science Monitor.

Fourteen states use audio or video recorders in lieu of court reporters, according to a 2015 study by the National Center for State Courts. Many of the states cite cost as the reason for the shift to digital. Read the full story from The Marshall Project.

According to the National Center for State Courts, the national average for responding to jury summons is 91 percent. Minnesota doesn’t keep recent statistics on that its response rate, but Lussier says it’s better than the national average. Read the full story from CBS Minnesota.

Most states — including Virginia, Delaware and Pennsylvania — list judges’ names, said Bill Raferty, an analyst for the National Center for State Courts. “There is always a name attached to the judge.” Read the full story from the Capital Gazette. 

Arizonans have kicked almost no one off the bench so far. But voters in Iowa, Colorado and Florida have set a precedent for doing so — or attempting to — when they felt the courts shifted too far in one direction, according to Bill Raftery, an analyst with the National Center for State Courts. Read the full story from azcentral.

Using a model developed by the National Center for State Courts, judicial need for fiscal 2020 was primarily based on the average number and type of cases filed in the most recent three years — from fiscal 2016 to 2018. Read the full story from Herald-Mail Media.

The Health and Human Services’ Employee Assistance Program “provides any person who is an employee of the federal government up to six confidential counseling sessions with clinical social workers or counselors to work through things,” said Paula Hannaford-Agor, director of the Center for Jury Studies at the National Center for State Courts. Because jurors in federal court are considered temporary government employees, “the judge will extend the jurors’ term of service for six months to a year so the jurors can access those federal benefits.” Read the full story from the Los Angeles Times.

"I thought it was uncommon for me to be selected because I was fairly new to the government system. I’m a college student that only registered to vote the year before. They say the selection is random, but I’m not sure that’s the case. The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) reported that in a given year, 32 million people get summoned for service. Also, it’s estimated that only 1.5 million people actually get selected to serve on a jury. There are many variables that affect the probability of being selected for jury duty." Read the full story from Loquitur.

The first Veterans Courts took root in Buffalo, N.Y., in 2008, according to the National Center for State Courts. They since have expanded across the country, including in both Savannah and Fayetteville, N.C. Read the full story from The Post and Courier.

"We enjoy being here. We've been looking forward to this for quite a while," Arkansas Chief Justice John Dan Kemp told those gathered at the University of Arkansas Hope-Texarkana campus. "The National Center for State Courts has indicated that this is the first time two state supreme courts have met to hear oral arguments in adjoining cities like this, so this is an historic occasion and we are glad to be a part of it." Read the full story from the Texarkana Gazette.

“Despite claims to the contrary, automatic right of appeal does exist in West Virginia,” New said. “It has been verified by the independent National Center for State Courts. You don't need to create a whole new court to fix something that's not broken.” Read the full story from the West Virginia Record.

Although statistics around the country are patchy, the volume of new tort cases is widely regarded to have fallen over the years. The most recent figures from the National Center for State Courts, covering 31 states, show that in 2017 new tort suits were filed by individuals and businesses at a rate of 2.08 for every 1,000 Americans. Read the full story from fairwarning.org.

The first veteran’s court opened in Buffalo, N.Y., in 2008, based on drug treatment and/or mental health treatment courts where substance abuse or mental health treatment is offered as an alternative to incarceration, according to the National Center for State Courts. Read the full story from the Daily Item.

According to the National Center for State Courts, 70 percent to 80 percent of all criminal cases each year are misdemeanor charges which can result in fines or a term of imprisonment of less than one year,” Deutch’s office noted. Read the full story from Florida Daily.

Nebraska was chosen by the National Center for State Courts as one of six sites nationally to participate in a project involving community engagement that will focus on disparate treatment of Native Americans in the state court system. Read the full story from the Beatrice Daily Sun.

Experts estimate that criminal-justice debt owed by poor defendants totals tens of billions of dollars, and that number is likely to grow. National Public Radio, in a survey with the Brennan Center for Justice and the National Center for State Courts, found that 48 states increased civil and criminal court fees from 2010 to 2014. Read the full story from the Crime Report.

No government agency comprehensively tracks the extent of criminal-justice debt owed by poor defendants, but experts estimate that those fines and fees total tens of billions of dollars. That number is likely to grow in coming years, and significantly: National Public Radio, in a survey conducted with the Brennan Center for Justice and the National Center for State Courts, found that 48 states increased their civil and criminal court fees from 2010 to 2014. Read the full story from the New York Times.

This experience was reflected in the findings of a national survey conducted by the nonprofit National Center for State Courts (NCSC), in which more than 80 percent of respondents said they want more online access to local courts, including the ability to ask for guidance from court staff rather than come to the courthouse. Read the full story from Pew.