Senate Journal: Page 74: Wednesday, January 10, 2001

  We have additional steps to take.  These steps do not involve the trappings
  of
  technology.  They are simple but crucial steps that involve fundamental
  issues such as
  due process, performance, and resources.

  INTERPRETER STUDY

  Our legal system seems complex and intimidating, even to those who were born
  here.  Imagine how it must seem to persons who do not speak or understand
  English.
  As a first generation Italian-American, I have some knowledge about the
  struggles
  immigrants face with our language.  I witnessed my grandparents and my
  father
  having some of the same struggles.

  We must be vigilant to safeguard the rights of, and provide access to, all
  who come
  to the courts regardless of which language they speak.  Justice requires
  that we do so.
  That is why the Iowa Supreme Court has established a task force to assess
  the need for
  improvements in interpreter services.  If improvements are needed, the task
  force will
  recommend a plan for addressing them.  We must remove any barriers to
  justice.

  PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENTS

  We work for the public, just as you do.  As public servants, we understand
  that our
  performance is directly related to the public's trust and confidence in us.
  Believing
  that we're on the right path is not enough.  We need to objectively evaluate
  whether we
  are.  And we have a plan to do just that.  Recently, we adopted a five-part
  plan for
  ongoing reviews to measure Judicial Branch performance.  The plan includes
  doing the
  following:

  ?	Monthly, each judicial district will conduct a review of court statistics
  to
  determine whether they are meeting our time standards for case processing;
  ?	Recently, we surveyed all court employees to find out how they think the
  courts perform in key areas such as fairness, integrity, efficiency,
  accessibility and communication.  We'll repeat the survey periodically;
  ?	We are encouraging each judicial district to hold employee discussion
  groups
  to hear employees' concerns and ideas for improvements;
  ?	We are providing a standard exit questionnaire to each juror, asking them
  to
  evaluate their court experience; and
  ?	We will conduct focus group sessions to seek the views of key court users
  such
  as attorneys, litigants, witnesses, and others.

  Our performance reviews will serve as reality checks, help us identify any
  weaknesses in the court system, and generate ideas for future improvements.

  JUDGESHIP STUDY

  Our performance suffers when we do not have enough judges.  The constitution
  gives you the responsibility to provide additional judges.  However, we are
  keenly
  interested because the number of judges you provide directly affects our
  ability to carry
  out our constitutional mandate to serve the people.

  In response to our shared concerns about the integrity of the statutory
  judgeship
  formulas, we started an intensive study of our trial court workload.  This
  fall, more
  than half of our trial court judges and magistrates participated in an
  eight-week time

© 2001 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa

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