From Sixth Grade To College in A Year: How Mental Health Court Helped Point One Participant in the Right Direction

By The Honorable Joseph S. Skocelas, 57th District Court, Allegan County

Josh Murphy was a tall, lanky 26-year-old who always came to the Allegan County Mental Health Treatment Court for his review hearings with a big smile on his face.  When he entered the mental health court program, he had a sixth grade education.

Making Peace in an Unlikely Place Through Alternative Dispute Resolution

By Kate Kesteloot-Scarbrough, Executive Director, Mediation & Restorative Services

Prison might not be the first place you think of when you imagine alternative dispute resolution, but more than 40 men at E.C. Brooks Correctional Facility in Muskegon have been trained as community mediators and they are making peace every day.

Community can mean a town or an intentional gathering of like-minded people, as in a church community or a work place.  It can also be a school or a neighborhood.  I suspect we rarely think of a prison as a community, but I would suggest that prisons are their own communities and they are part of our community, and that is why a Community Dispute Resolution Center trained men to become mediators at E.C. Brooks. 

Swift and Sure in 2016: Year in Review

By Thomas Myers, Management Analyst, SCAO, Trial Court Services

Last year was a big year for Michigan’s Swift and Sure Sanctions Probation Program.  Let’s look back at some highlights.

Justice 101: Educating our Youth on the Court System

By the Honorable Derek Meinecke, 44th District Court, Royal Oak

District courts are generally referred to as community courts because of their proximity to everyday citizens.  That puts district court judges in a unique and advantageous position to partner with local leaders and create projects that can make a real and substantial impact.  It is within this spirit of community cooperation that the “Justice 101” program was formed.

‘To Voir Dire or Not to Voir Dire’: That is the Question

By Stacy Westra, Management Analyst, SCAO, Trial Court Services

Doesn’t it seem ironic to begin a story about foreign language interpreters with a French legal term?  That may be, but it is necessary.  Failure to voir dire could jeopardize the successful appointment of a foreign language interpreter at the time of trial.  The term voir dire means “to speak the truth,” and while most often used when referring to the juror process, it is important to understand how it applies to foreign language interpreters.

Exploring Process: The Viewpoint of the Self-Represented Litigant

By Angela Tripp, Director, Michigan Legal Help Program, and
Martha Gove, Staff Attorney/Program & Outreach Coordinator, Michigan Legal Help Program

Sometimes the best way to understand how others experience your product is to be your own customer.  Michigan Legal Help staff recently conducted user testing to get real-time, in-person feedback about the website – its layout, wording, and the new features we’re adding.  Similarly, an attorney colleague recently used Michigan Legal Help to represent herself in her divorce, moving through the courts for the first time as a self-represented litigant instead of as an attorney.  What she had to say about the experience was as illuminating as any user testing we could have done, and speaks a great deal to the experiences of self-represented litigants.

State of MIchigan Passes 2016 Federal Title IV-E Review

By Casey Anbender, Management Analyst, SCAO, Child Welfare Services Division

The 2016 Federal Title IV-E Onsite Review took place last September in Lansing.  The state of Michigan was found to be in substantial compliance by the federal government, citing a total of three case errors from the 80 cases randomly selected for review statewide.[1]  The federal government reviews state Title IV-E Programs approximately once every three years to determine whether the case files, court orders, licensing requirements, and payment records meet federal Title IV-E requirements as outlined in 45 CFR §1356.71 and §472 of the Social Security Act.

Finding the ‘KEYS’ to Success for Kalamazoo Youth

By Joseph L. Thomas, III, Juvenile Services Supervisor
Kalamazoo County Circuit Court

In 2015, the Family Division staff of Kalamazoo County Circuit Court met to discuss ways of improving service delivery, while better meeting the needs of our court-involved youth.  Judges, referees, administrators, managers, and juvenile probation officers identified gaps in the lives of youths resulting in delinquent behavior.  The team created an exciting and innovative program called Kalamazoo Empowering Youth for Success (KEYS) as a potential remedy.  The program targets areas such as gender-specific programming, after-school supervision, vocational readiness and placement, educational and community supports, and improved decision-making skills.

Use SCAO MCAP Help Desk for Reports and More

Have you ever received an error message while running an output report from the Delay in Criminal Proceedings application?  Or wondered what steps you should take to submit your caseload verification?  The Michigan Court Application Portal (MCAP) Help Desk team is available to answer these and many other questions about the various reporting applications on MCAP.

Kevin's Law Resources

Videos and training materials covering the recent changes to the Mental Health Code are now available for probate court staff at https://mjieducation.mi.gov/videos/navigating and for judges at https://mjieducation.mi.gov/videos/navigating (judges may be logged into the judges-only area to view).

St. Clair County Friend of the Court Offers a Class to Fill in the Gaps for its Customers

By Renae Topolewski, St. Clair County Friend of the Court

Let’s face it: the friend of the court is not a place where one would ideally choose to spend their time.  It gets a bad name from the public and those it serves.  Most of us know of someone who has gone through the FOC and have heard complaints made about their local office.  The truth is, however, the friend of the court gets a bad name because it’s dealing with frustrated parents placed into a mandated process when dealing with matters of the utmost importance to them: their children and their finances.  While some things cannot be changed, we can improve the customer’s frustration level with the process.  Generally, the public’s perception of the FOC is that it is not customer-friendly and it is difficult to get anything accomplished from a customer service standpoint.

Exit, Pursued by a Bear: Why Peacemaking Makes Sense in State Court Justice Systems

©2016. First published in the Judge’s Journal, Vol. 55, No. 4, Fall 2016, by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association or the copyright holder 

By the Honorable Timothy Connors, 22nd Circuit Court, Washtenaw County

For some, Shakespeare’s famous stage directive is more than a visual transition. It is a metaphorical recognition that we need to take a different path. The bear is our collective self. It represents how we too often respond to conflict between each other in our justice systems. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. observed: “If we do an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, we will be a blind and toothless nation.” In the end, the bear consumes us all.

Some believe that tribal court peacemaking offers us that alternative path. This path leaves us with our sensibilities intact and our better selves renewed. I speak now of our collective selves. I speak of a justice system that views the healing of controversy as an institutional foundation to its public responsibility. As a state court judge who has embraced peacemaking in our state courts, I am one of those who believe.

In 2013, our Michigan Supreme Court asked our county to explore tribal court peacemaking philosophies, principles, and procedures and report on whether state courts could benefit from what we learned from our tribal neighbors. We did.

And we can.