July 16th, 2024, Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode In previous podcasts, we have discussed the unprecedented hiring crunch facing our country. Intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been characterized by a significant mismatch between the supply of, and demand for young talent. Despite robust economic recovery efforts, employers in gen…

June 18th Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode Civil filings are falling. They have been for some time. In fact, most court filings have been on a slow decline. In 2018, The National Center for State Courts put out a bulletin stating that nationally every major case category had declined from 2008 to 2016. There are indications that in some sta…

March 28, 2024, A Question of Ethics Conversation Join Kevin Bowling as we discuss the ethical issues surrounding the burgeoning topic of courts’ use of artificial intelligence (AI). Kevin discusses a definition of AI and specifically generative AI, existing practical uses in the courts, some misuses of IA, the need for policy and data governance, …

May 21st Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode Although they are not universally accepted, court self-service centers can help prepare self-represented litigants to navigate the exotic terrain of the courtroom. They can also expedite court proceedings and weed out inappropriate arguments. Less obvious but equally as important, the information th…

January 25, 2024, A Question of Ethics Conversation Episode Welcome to the latest episode of A Question of EthicsConversation. The topic for this discussion is Organization Fairness. The October 26th, 2023, Question of Ethics Conversation hosted by Samantha Wallis, brought upmany interesting questions. One set of questions revolved around the conce…

April 16th Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode It may have started with the advent of no-fault divorce in the 1970s. But the numbers of litigants representing themselves in court has regularly increased year after year. This fact has presented a challenge for the community and for courts. People pursuing legal matters in court and who have lim…

March 19th Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode In April of 2022, we hosted a podcast episode on “The Great Resignation.” At the time large numbers of employees were resigning, or (after being furloughed for some period) were deciding not to return to work. The assumption back then was that this was a temporary phenomenon. Once COVID receded, p…

February 20, 2024, Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) has spawned numerous questions, both practical and ethical. These are questions that courts are going to have to grapple with in the near future, including: Given the complexity of AI algorithms and the tens of thousands of data points used for tr…

January 16th Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode Artificial Intelligence. The media is filled with discussions of its potential to dramatically change our lives. It will increase productivity; it will relieve us from having to make mundane decisions; it will reveal heretofore unseen connections. Conversely, it may eliminate jobs, take away our…

December 19th, 2023, Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode The struggle to equitably and effectively allocate courtresources is a challenge that faces every state. Everywhere the question is the same: how do you allocate funds fairly to courts of different sizes and may even perform different operations such as having a Treatment Court? How do y…

October 26, 2023, A Question of Ethics Conversation Episode Today’s Question of Ethics Conversation looks at several ethical challenges regarding employee performance. It discusses four questions many supervisors face in their oversight role. Can you, as a supervisor, remain friends with colleagues once you have become their boss? This is an especi…

November 21st, 2023, Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode Suburban and rural courts often face distinctive issues. These issues are different from those of truly small courts, but also different from the issues faced by massive metropolitan court organizations. It is tempting to always talk about big problems in big courts. It is easy to forget…

August 24, 2023, A Question of Ethics Conversation Episode Today’s Question of Ethics Conversation looks at workplace culture and technology. It focuses on the ethical challenges to workplace culture and technology as it pertains to Canon 1.1 of the NACM Model Code of Conduct which states that a court professional faithfully carries out all appropr…

October 17th Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode In the middle of last month’s episode, the question was asked, should recidivism be a trial court performance measure? All the panelists responded negatively, but the reasons they gave areworth hearing. We have all heard the criticism that the criminal justice has turned into a “revolving door.”…

September 19th, 2023, Court Leader’s Advantage PodcastEpisode As court leaders, we are inundated with statistics and research. We have all been taught to have a healthy skepticism of statistics. We are given advice that includes: ask questions, go to the source of the research, and expose the assumptions behind the analysis. We have seen what happe…

August 15th, 2023, Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode Leaders deal with multiple circles of individuals. Two that you as a court administrator or Clerk of Court deal with are 1) those who report to you and 2) those you either report to or deal with as fellow stakeholders. Those reporting to you include your team, and the larger office or cour…

July 18th, 2023, Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode As one progresses higher in an organization the challenges of leadership can become a regular test. Increasingly responsible positions can draw leaders away from the very people they first came to rely on. The demands of those you report to can outweigh the needs of the people who support yo…

June 20th, 2023, Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode Is there another concept in court administration that has been discussed, studied, and analyzed more often than Leadership? For many the image of a leaderthat immediately comes to mind is the person who confidently says, “follow me, I know the way.” It implies that the leader can always be r…

April 27, 2023, A Question of Ethics Conversation Episode “Quiet Quitting.” It is a topic that many of us have heard about. In an era where it is a challenge to hire employees, is “Quiet Quitting” an emerging change in the contract between the court and employees or is it just a new term for some staff not doing their jobs? In the past it has been …

May 16th, 2023, Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode It was not that long ago that the phrase “you’re lucky to have a job” was powerful advice. Nowadays, employers across multiple business sectors are complaining of unfilled staff positions. Shortages of teachers and restaurant workers immediately come to mind. On the other hand, just lately we…

April 18th, 2023, Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode We have been talking about various aspects of employee recruitment and selection, often as it intersects with diversity, equity, and inclusion. This brought up the topic of the power imbalance surrounding employee selection. Traditionally, job candidates enter the selection process in a pow…

February 23, 2023, A Question of Ethics Conversation Episode This is the second of a two-part conversation on hiring ethical employees. Part-one, (held January 26th, 2023), is available on the Ethics Subcommittee Webpage, on the NACM website. What actions can courts take to optimize the hiring of ethical staff? What can you do to ensure that the pe…

Numerous organizations, including courts, are embracing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. With that increasing acceptance, we are also seeing increasing resistance, and it is important to address that resistance directly. On the December episode we discussed the question “can hiring criteria, particularlyfor managers and supervisors, be objective?”…

January 26, 2023, A Question of Ethics Conversation Episode: A Conversation on Courts and Ethics What actions can a court take to optimize the hiring of ethical staff? What can you do to ensure that the people you hire will adhere to your court’s Code of Conduct? Relying on the book by Bruce Weinstein, The Good Ones: Ten Crucial Qualities of High C…

February 21st, 2023, Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode We see this growing crisis everywhere. We pass the cardboard sign at the intersection asking for donations and wishing us: “God Bless.” We see the blue tarp and shopping cart half hidden in that small grove of trees next to the freeway. We see him sleeping on the sidewalk over the grate.…

January 17th, 2023, Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode Every state in our nation has a Judicial Code of Conduct. Every judge in each state is obligated to follow that state’s Code. Since 1973, most Federal judges have been subject to The Code of Conduct for United States Judges. There is only group exempt from the duty to follow these codes. …

September 22, 2022, A Question of Ethics Episode: A Conversation on Courts and Ethics We are not stockbrokers or day traders, but in our role as court employees we learn a lot. We know about patterns of litigation against businesses and against professionals in the community. We know about protection orders filed against real estate agents; we know…

December 20th Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode Courts have committed to the advancement of diversity, equity, and inclusion particularly in recruiting and selecting court employees. This commitment however has not been without controversy. One criticism has been that personnel recruitment and selection should be entirely objective and merit…

A Question of Ethics Conversation August 15, 2022, Episode The COVID Pandemic brought the use of technology to the forefront of our conversation worldwide. Technology is expanding at breakneck speed. Is it out stripping courts' ability to manage new technological innovations? Relevant Ethics Canons Canon 1 Avoiding Impropriety and the Appearance of…

November 15th 2022, Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode The public’s perception of our courts continues to be a topic of concern and curiosity for court professionals. Last month we discussed finding of the National Center for State Courts 2021 State of the State Courts survey that found that public trust in the courts had declined to 64% from…

October 18, 2022 Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode What do we know about how the public views our courts? We know that the public’s trust and confidence in courts has been slipping over the years. The 2021 National Center for State Courts State of the State Courts survey found that public trust in the courts along other institutions has been…

September 20th Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode Obtaining customer feedback, obtaining usable feedback, obtaining enough of it to be able to rationally modify court programs, all of these are major hurdles. And yet getting good customer feedback is so important. It is important to complete the loop: to plan, to act, to check results, and th…

August 16, 2022, Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode In this episode, we ask the question, “What should our courts be doing now?” This month we bring our discussion on behavioral health and the courts home. In previous episodes we talked about the extent of the problem nationally and how it affects each community; we discussed the need for com…

July 19th 2022 Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode Bail Reform has been praised as an effective way to correct a societal wrong. The movement's byword has been “bail does not keep the most dangerous in jail: it keeps the poorest.” Despite this argument, Bail Reform is receiving increasing pushback. Bail Reform aims to curb or eliminate cash ba…

June 21st Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode Online Dispute Resolution has been us in various forms since the 1990s, although it really became widely accepted a little over five years ago. By contrast, widespread acceptance of virtual mediation seems to have been an outgrowth of the COVID pandemic. Today many courts around the country use one…

A Question of Ethics Conversation May 2022 This episode of A Question of Ethics will continue to explore diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and NACM’s commitment to helping provide equal justice. This session was recorded after the Ethics Subcommittee Conference Call on April 28th, 2022. The questions the group explored include: · Does focusin…

May 17th Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode This country’s mental health crisis is by no means limited to adults. We know that young people frequently suffer from traumatic events. This fact has only been made worse by the scourge of COVID. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center revealed that well over a third (37%) of U.S. high school st…

April 19th Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode One unintended consequence of the COVID pandemic has been a phenomenon called “The Great Resignation.” Large numbers of American workers have either quit their jobs or (after being laid off) have chosen not to return to their previous employer. CBS News has reported an estimated 20 million people …

A Question of Ethics Conversation: Summer 2022 Edition of the Court Manager NACM has made a commitment to the values of providing equal justice regardless of race, gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation or identity, disability, or social economic status. What is the court’s ethical obligation, particularly when it comes to implementing court op…

March 15th Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode In our last two episodes on mental health and the courts we talked about the fact that traditional criminal case management is not meeting the needs of the people we serve. We must develop a new comprehensive and collaborative model. We need to create a fair and effective caseflow management syste…

February 15th, 2022 Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode We’ve been talking about work-life balance for decades. It is a perennial challenge. What has changed in these last two years is, of course, COVID. For the first time in the history of America’s court system, large numbers of employees are teleworking, many are frightened of catching the …

Tuesday, January 18, 2022, Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode In November we started our discussion on how mental illness is impacting our nation and particularly our courts. In this episode, we are taking a deeper dive into the criminal justice realm, specifically the challenge of competency to stand trial. The task of determining if a defen…

These last two turbulent years have brought into sharp relief the dynamic tension between a court’s duty to keep both employees and the public safe, and the duty to respect the privacy and the personal choices of those very same employees and the public. This conversation is taking place at a time when many of us thought (or at least hoped), that t…

December 21st Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode The preliminary results from NACM’s Voice of the Profession survey have revealed folks' number one issue this year: Public Confidence in the Courts. Over 95% of those responding reported that they either agreed or strongly agreed that NACM needs to advocate on behalf of the courts regarding the…

November 16th Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode The challenge of mental illness is impacting America nationwide. It impacts our states, our communities, our courts, and our entire justice system. The courts are at the center of the clash between competing funding choices, community concerns, and those struggling with behavioral health issues…

Tuesday, October 19, 2021, Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode The national movement to reduce or eliminate cash bail continues to spark heated discussion. Several states, including New Jersey and Alaska, have instituted bail reform. Other states such as California have repeatedly seen attempts at reform fail, either in the legislature or at t…

Tuesday, October 5, 2021, Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode A cyberattack is truly a different kind of threat, but that threat is real and growing. It takes a different kind of approach to defend against such an attack. Different questions need to be asked well before an attack occurs. Cybersecurity experts advise that having responses to th…

Tuesday, September 21, 2021, Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode Threats from cyberattacks can be easily ignored by courts. There are many rationalizations: “Our court is too small to worry about cyberattacks” “We have a great firewall that keeps everything out” “Our employees change their passwords every three months just like clockwork” “Eve…

IACA’s Global Conversation Podcast Summer 2021 Measuring judicial performance is a burning topic in many countries around the globe. How to balance the need for timely case resolution with the necessity for just results is a question many court experts have often pondered. Today, our panel of international court professionals will discuss the impli…

Tuesday, August 17, 2021, Court Leader’s Advantage Podcast Episode Local Courts can offer incredible opportunity for both defendants and for the community. They are positioned precisely at a point to curtail dangerous behavior before it grows worse. The array of problem-solving courts nationally, often managed on a shoestring budget, is astounding.…