Technical Assistance

Technical Assistance

Our team has decades of experience working with courts. We can work with you to address the challenges that are unique to your court while also bringing best practices and examples to bear from across the country. You can see some of our work in this section of the website, and we are also happy to talk about how we might be able to help.

Tiny Chats

Tiny Chats are bite-sized annotated videos that touch on specific access to justice topics and court operations.

Watch videos.

Debt Collection Reform Checklist Generator

The Debt Collection Reform Checklist Generator will help courts implement already-enacted debt collection case rule or statute-based reforms.

This tool will help create customized checklists to help plaintiffs and the court ensure case requirements are met at various stages of the case.

This tool is not a comprehensive discussion of debt collection reform, nor is it intended to help jurisdictions who are at the stage of statutory or rule-based reform. Rather, this tool offers a practical way to help jurisdictions incorporate consumer debt court-based reforms into existing court business practice through the use of checklists. Once created by the tool, these checklists are designed to be further modified to fit each jurisdiction's needs.

If you would like to talk with NCSC staff about your checklists or how to approach implementing their use you can schedule a consultation with NCSC’s Access to Justice Consulting team here.

Your data and responses are not stored or collected by NCSC, and use of this tool is anonymous.

Websites:

Coming Soon:

  • Access to Justice Resource Inventories
  • Michigan Justice for All Strategic Planning and Process Improvement

Examples of Assistance:

High Volume Calendars and Racial/Ethnic Data in DC Courts
This report documents the ways that the high-volume calendars currently promote procedural fairness; discusses expectations and experiences community partners have with the court system; and analyzes litigant data to better understand how case characteristics and outcomes are related to litigant race, ethnicity, and other demographic characteristics. The authors discuss challenges and provide recommendations for improvement.
Download PDF File (1.5 MB)
Three Witches
Pandemic Procedural Improvement Poem
Download PDF File (263.5 KB)
Macbeth Poem
Original Macbeth poem
Download PDF File (204.6 KB)
Pandemic Era Procedural Improvements That Courts Should Adopt Permanently
This report highlights the innovative ways courts operated during the pandemic and should continue to operate.
Download PDF File (1.7 MB)
High Volume Calendars and Racial/Ethnic Data in DC Courts
This report documents the ways that the high-volume calendars currently promote procedural fairness; discusses expectations and experiences community partners have with the court system; and analyzes litigant data to better understand how case characteristics and outcomes are related to litigant race, ethnicity, and other demographic characteristics. The authors discuss challenges and provide recommendations for improvement.
Download PDF File (1.4 MB)
Data Framework for Promoting Civil Access to Justice
This report describes the data elements needed to answer each key question in the areas of landlord-tenant, mortgage foreclosure, small claims, debt collection, divorce, child custody, and guardianship/conservatorship cases. This report also provides more detailed guidance on data governance, measurement, and analysis.
Download PDF File (415.0 KB)
Data to Promote Civil Access to Justice: 5 Key Questions
In this brief report, we outline the key questions that courts can answer with the right data. The framework helps courts to answer 5 key questions about access to justice in their jurisdictions, laying the foundation for data-informed policy change.
Download PDF File (148.9 KB)
Vermont Judiciary Access and Resource Center: Planning Report and Recommendations
This report identifies ways to leverage a self-help and language access and resource center bringing a national perspective and examples of best practices and innovations.
Download PDF File (2.3 MB)
Seventeen Lessons for Local Court Rules and Orders
After studying hundreds of local rule compilations, NCSC has observed common pain points that local courts can avoid when they adopt new—or revise existing—local court rules and administrative orders. In this resource, each theme is identified, the problem is explained, and a corrective solution is shared.
Download PDF File (10.3 MB)