judges

Advanced Judicial Essentials and Specialized Court Clerks Training

The Intertribal Court of Southern California (ICSC) has requested specialized onsite TTA training. This training will focus on (7) core areas of daily operation for tribal court staff:
1) Advanced Judicial Essentials; 2) Indian Child Welfare; 3) Torts; 4) Specialized Court Clerks Training & Ethics; 5) Self-Represented Litigants; 6) Duties and Responsibilities for Case Flow Management; and 7) The Relationship Between the Chief Judge and Tribal Court Administrator.

Tribal court judges, often unknowingly, fill multiple
needs within tribal systems. First, they adjudicate
disputes. Second, they are the focal point of attacks, or
preservation of, sovereignty of tribes. The federal
system often in an off-hand manner assaults our tribal
adjudicatory processes as illustrated in U.S. Supreme
Court oral arguments and decisions. Third, we can
function as a tribal mechanism for institutionalizing our
culture, social structures and traditional processes,

Caseflow Management has changed very much over the past ten years with new technology and different types of specialty courts. We began a process of reviewing and updating our four-day course, Effective Caseflow Management. We are working with the Justice Management Institute’s Vice President, Tim Dibble. The updated course will be piloted in July, 2015 and we will evaluate the results.

The National Judicial College provides scholarships to enable judges and other court service professionals to attend judicial education courses at NJC. We announce the availability of scholarships to the chief justice of every state, to the state court administrators, to the state judicial educators, and directly to the judges. The judges apply using a Scholarship Application form and we review their application based upon need, geographic diversity, educational record and eligibility for the course. We require scholarship recipients to attend all sessions and to provide an evaluation.

The National Tribal Judicial Center at The National Judicial College awards financial assistance to judges and other court service professionals from tribal courts to enable them to receive continuing education to improve their tribal justice systems.

The WI, MN, MI State and Tribal Judges Forum provided an opportunity for Judges to share best practices and network. The Judges from Michigan spent lunch discussing the morning session presented by Minnesota Judges and how Michigan could integrate similar programming. Having a venue to share, network, and discuss enhancements is crucial to the justice system.