Washington Courts: Judicial News Report Detail

Working To Make Things Better .

"What are we doing to make the justice system better for all our citizens?"

This was a question Chief Justice Barbara Durham focused upon in her second state-of-the-judiciary address to legislators, January 20. Recently elected to a four-year term in the Court's top leadership position, Durham highlighted improvements in court efficiency and technology over the past two years. Durham was introduced to attendees of the special, combined session of the state House and Senate by Senate president pro tem Irv Newhouse.

Fairness and equality

Noting the day was one set aside to honor the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Durham observed that, King had "spoke(n) eloquently and often about justice. In his famous letter from a Birmingham jail, he wrote: Injustice anywhere...is a threat to justice everywhere.'"

Efficiency

But efficiency was her key word for the day. "I am pleased to report that from Bellingham to Vancouver, Aberdeen to Pullman--our courts and our judges have been working hard to make our justice system efficient."

A case in point: a recent performance audit of "JIS," the state's Judicial Information System completed in November by The National Center for State Courts. Turning to face house speaker Clyde Ballard, Durham said "you will be pleased with the results...The report states that our JIS staffing levels are among the most efficient in the country. We operate more efficiently, reliably and at less cost-per-user than comparable systems in Washington State...in other states....and even systems in the private sector."

A December news story quoted Ballard as being unhappy with cost overruns, late start-ups and other problems associated with some state computer systems. He called for a "summit meeting" of legislators to discuss these problems, saying he was "annoyed that in Washington, with Microsoft and all these companies, we can't get these (computer systems) going." JIS computers have been "going" since the early 197O's.

Durham praised the work of the system's governing committee, chaired by Justice Phil Talmadge. "JIS now handles 675,000 transactions a day," Durham noted. "This number will soon reach the million mark."

Additional efficiencies in store for JIS include installation of a domestic violence tracking system, planned for operation next July. The new system will give DV arrest and conviction information to police, prosecutors and judges across the state. "With this in place, chronic abusers may still run--but they won't be able to hide their past," she explained.

Efficiency also means making the most of limited resources. Durham said regional meetings of superior and district/municipal court judges were set up to find ways to keep pace with the rising costs and declining revenues. Her own court, she said, developed a zero-based budgeting process, to see where departments could reduce expenses, then executed an internal management review, to improve internal communications and day-to-day operations.

"These and other efforts will allow us to hold the line on expenses while keeping the wheels of justice turning," said Durham.

Innovations

Technological innovations--from the Washington Court Homepage to the emergence of live coverage of supreme court hearings--were also highlighted by Durham.

Durham described TVW, the state's new public affairs cable-network that broadcasts legislative activities and state Supreme Court oral arguments, as "an innovative educational tool (that) is a two-way street--it takes the court to the people, and brings people to the court."

"In the past, very few people visited our court to observe cases being argued...until recently. Now friends and utter strangers stop us on the street and tell us what they thought about a case we heard two days ago--or even that morning. That's the power of television," Durham said. "Our hearings, we understand, were the first gavel-to-gavel, appellate court proceedings televised live, anywhere in the world."

Cooperation

Durham also hit on the need for cooperation--legislative and judicial--in dealing with the challenges of the criminal justice system, establishing the state's laws, and finding more efficient ways to allocate scarce dollars. Again, Durham quoted from the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.:

"We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects us all indirectly."

"Together let us continue to seek what is fair, what is right, and what is just for the citizens who have placed their trust in us," Durham concluded.