Contact Us
Minority & Justice Commission
Administrative Office of the Courts
Post Office Box 41170
Olympia, WA 98504-1170
Phone: (360) 704-5536 AOCMIN/JUS@courts.wa.gov
Our Mission
The Minority and Justice Commission seeks to foster and support a fair and bias-free system of justice in the
Washington State courts and judicial systems by: 1) identifying bias of racial, ethnic, national origin and similar nature that
affects the quality of justice in Washington State courts and judicial systems; 2) taking affirmative steps to address and eliminate such bias,
and taking appropriate steps to prevent any reoccurrence of such bias; and 3) working collaboratively with the other Supreme Court Commissions
and other justice system partners.
The MJC Education Committee has developed a plenary session for the first day of the 65th Washington Judicial Conference. The session, titled Access to Courts, Access to Counsel, provides an overview of the state's challenge to meet the growing need of unrepresented civil litigants in our state courts. Speakers present a framework for judicial officers to use their experience and privilege, from the bench, to support unpresented litigants in exercising their legal rights.
The program keynote is provided by Professor Russell Engler of New England Law Boston. Professor Engler has written extensively on access to justice and access to counsel issues and serves on the Massachusetts Access to Justice Commission. He is also a member of the Steering Committee for the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel. Professor Engler's keynote address covers the current crisis for unrepresented litigants in the courts highlighting the challenges these litigants face, especially in cases in which one party is unrepresented and the other has representation, and how the intersection of gender, race and poverty play a role in who appears without representation. He also provides a national history on the civil right to counsel with a focus on how right to counsel intersects with the access to justice movement. The keynote wraps with a discussion on the challenges of judicial ethics when ensuring unrepresented litigants have sufficient legal information to exercise their legal rights.
Following the keynote, Dr. Karl Jones, Senior Equity Research Associate with the Washington State Center for Court Research (WSCCR) presents new research on civil legal deserts and the effects of racial segregation on access to legal resources in both rural and urban areas of Washington.
In the second half of the session, Judge Jennifer Forbes, Kitsap County Superior Court, Judge Katherine Svoboda, Grays Harbor Superior Court, and Judge Dean Chaung, Spokane County Superior Court, provide insight into the Self-Help Centers (SHC) in Spokane and Greys Harbor. The panel covers the role of the SCJA and judicial officer advocacy in securing the pilot self-help program, advantages judicial officers experience when deploying the SHC as a resource to self-represented litigants, conversely, the challenges of employing self-help center resources, and lessons learned from SHC rollout and deployment.
The final session is a Q&A panel covering challenges in meeting civil legal needs within the current court system, the role of judicial officers in mitigating negative impacts to litigants appearing unrepresented, the role of judicial officers in advancing access to civil justice, and the disparate impacts of unmet civil legal needs. The panel also is open to the audience for questions.
This Fall Conference plenary lays the foundation for additional MJC Education Committee programs at next year's Spring Conferences. Future programs will expand upon what civil justice looks like in the context of access to counsel in different courts across Washington.
Diversity in the Judiciary Reception - 65th Washington Judicial Conference
The MJC Outreach Committee hosts the annual Diversity in the Judiciary Reception after the Access to Courts, Access to Counsel plenary session. The reception provides a casual happy hour setting where members of the judiciary can celebrate the growing diversity in Washington State's judiciary. This years' welcome toast and closing remarks are provided by the Washington State Court of Appeals Division I Chief Judge Lori K. Smith, Acting Chief Judge Cecily Hazelrigg and Supreme Court Chief Justice Steven González.
The Washington State Minority and Justice Commission has published the Annual Report for 2019 - 2023. The report highlights the Commission's progress in advancing its mission across four key areas: education, research, outreach and community engagement, and workforce diversity. During this time the Commission hosted and supported numerous judicial and legal educational programs focused on increasing awareness and understanding of systemic racism, implicit bias, and cultural competency. The Commission assisted with the expansion of local Youth and Law Forum events and succeeded in advancing long-term initiatives such as the completion of the LFO Consortium Final Report and major expansion of jury demographic studies to improve the representativeness of juries in Washington.
Despite the challenges faced between 2019-2023 the Commission continued its work and saw many successes. During this time the Commission hosted four Symposia, covering a variety of topics, featuring expert panels who provided in-depth presentations on subjects relating to racial equity in the legal system. In the Spring of 2023, the Commission hosted the 35th annual national conference for the National Consortium on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts (NCREF). The conference brought together judges, attorneys, legal professionals, and advocates from across the country to explore the root causes of racial and ethnic bias and disparities in state judicial systems. In addition to these educational and community events, the report covers the Commission's work advancing workforce diversity initiatives and research on jury diversity, legal financial obligations, and the disproportionate rates of girls of color in the Washington juvenile justice system.
We hope this report inspires readers to join the Commission in the crucial work of striving for a fairer and bias-free legal system in Washington State.
Updated Resource: 2024 Diversity in the Judiciary Directory
The 2024 Diversity in the Judiciary Directory, which highlights participating judges, commissioners, and magistrates of color from across the state, has been released by the Minority and Justice Commission to serve as a resource to the public. The directory lists the name, court, contact information, ethnicity, and languages spoken of each participating judicial officer, who have opted into the directory to serve as mentors, speakers, and share information with their communities.
The Administrative Office of the Courts and Washington State Minority & Justice Commission has partnered with Seattle University to produce a report summarizing the findings in the state's largest jury summons demographic survey to date. In total, findings from more than a quarter-million responses are included in the report.
The findings show that jurors of color, particularly Black and Native jurors, remained underrepresented in jury pools throughout the state, and face greater barriers to jury service. Work-related and financial barriers to serving on juries, which disproportionately impact working parents and people of color, remain an issue. In addition to the data on respondents to jury summons, the report features a deeper look into Pierce County demographics throughout the jury selection process.
For more information and questions, please contact Frank Thomas, Senior Court Program Analyst, at Frank.Thomas@courts.wa.gov.
Join us for the only national conference dedicated to advancing
racial & ethnic fairness in the courts!
National Consortium on Racial & Ethnic Fairness in the Courts
2023 Conference and Annual Meeting
Hosted by the Washington State Minority & Justice Commission
"Justice: Promises to Keep"
May 21-24, 2023
Hilton Motif Seattle Hotel
"The Long Night of Lady Justice"
by Washington State Minority & Justice Commission member Anthony David Gipe
Copyright ¸ Anthony David Gipe - 2018-2023; All Rights and Images Reserved to the Artist
Conference Keynote Address with Film Screening of "Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America" and Discussion featuring Jeffery Robinson, Founder of The Who We Are Project
We look forward to seeing you!
Is your organization interested in becoming a conference supporter?
A new report issued by the Washington State Minority and Justice Commission sheds light on court practices regarding the imposition of fines and fees, also called "legal financial obligations" or LFOs, including the actual collection rate of such fines and how the funds are used. The Price of Justice: Legal Financial Obligations in Washington State, found that Washington courts had imposed approximately $223 million in fines and fees and within a three-year period, collected approximately $11.5 million. The original grant from the Department of Justice was awarded to five states for exploring LFO practices and issues of fairness and equity from 2016 to 2019.
At the end of that research, the Minority and Justice Commission partnered with a non-profit organization already working with individuals struggling with court debt, Living With Conviction. This expanded the effort to include an exploration of the impacts of LFOs on the lives of people living with court debt, and those individuals' recommendations for reforming the system of LFOs. The resulting companion report, The Cost of Justice: Reform Priorities of People with Court Fines and Fees, discusses the consequences of LFOs and how court debt can plague the lives of individuals with little or no ability to pay.
The Washington State Minority & Justice Commission has partnered with Seattle University to produce a report examining jury diversity changes in three Puget Sound counties due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the move to virtual trials, jurors of color remained underrepresented in jury pools. Work-related and financial barriers to serving on juries, which disproportionately impact working parents and people of color, remain problems for eligible citizens, according to research by two Seattle University criminal justice faculty. Surveys were included in digital jury summonses in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties between Jan. 29 and May 28 of 2021. About 3,800 responses were received and analyzed by Associate Professor Peter A. Collins, PhD; and Assistant Professor Brooke Miller Gialopsos, PhD.
For more information and questions, please contact Frank Thomas, Senior Court Program Analyst, at Frank.Thomas@courts.wa.gov.
The Minority and Justice Commission has partnered with the Washington State Center for Court Research (WSCCR) to produce a first-of-its-kind analysis of racial disparities among juvenile detention admission rates in Washington State. Criminal Justice research often treats girls in juvenile detention as an afterthought, and as a consequence we see a dearth of meaningful research and data on their experiences. We hope this Report not only sheds lights onto previously-undocumented racial disproportionality rates in the Washington juvenile justice system, but also serves as a road map to further research that utilizes an intersectional and multidisciplinary approach to improving court policy. For more information and inquiries, please contact Frank Thomas at frank.thomas@courts.wa.gov.
Legal Financial Obligations (LFO) Calculator
A free online calculator developed in partnership with Microsoft to help Washington judges set appropriate levels of LFOs based on a defendant's ability to pay is available to the public. The calculator was developed as part of the Commission's U.S. Department of Justice Price of Justice Grant. The LFO Calculator is compatible with the most current versions of the following browsers: Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari.
