Gender and Justice Commission

September 8, 2005

PRESENT

Members:  Justice Barbara A. Madsen, Judge Marlin Appelwick, Maggie Chon, Eileen Concannon, Jeralita Costa, Judge Sara Derr, Tom Fallquist, Judie Fortier, Grace Huang, Michael Killian, Sandy Matheson, Yvonne Pettus, Judge Jim Riehl, Judge Ann Schindler, Dan Thieme, Judge Linda Tompkins

Guests:  Brendan Doncker, Jake Faucett, Merrie Gough, Tiffany Tull

Staff:  Gloria Hemmen

CALL TO ORDER

Justice Madsen called the meeting to order at 9:15 a.m. and welcomed the new Commission members and guests.

COMMISSION BUSINESS

Approval of Minutes

It was moved and seconded to approve the May 13, 2005 meeting minutes.  Motion carried.

Budget Report

The Commission reviewed the budget status report and took action on one funding request.

It was moved and seconded to approve Eileen Cannon’s request for $1,000 for expenses associated with attending the American Bar Association Annual Conference.  Motion carried

It was moved and seconded to require that all future requests for funding be submitted prior to the event.  Motion carried

Meeting Schedule

The next meeting has been rescheduled to November 4 because of the Veteran’s Day holiday.  The meeting will be held in Seattle at the law offices of Riddell Williams, Eileen Concannon’s firm.

Membership  

Commission and Judge A. Schindler, Nominating Committee Chair, requested members review the list of candidates and send comments and additional candidates’ names to her.

PROJECT STATUS REPORTS

Education Programs/Training

The Commission reviewed agendas for nine education programs.  Commission and/or grant funds are supporting these programs.

1.         Domestic Violence: Court Evaluations of Impact on Children; Screening and Assessment Strategies.  Dr. Anne Ganley presented the May 12, 2005 workshop for Family Court Services and Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) at King County Superior Court.  (Commission funded.)

2.         2005 National Gathering for Tribal-Federal-State Court Relations: Walking on Common Ground.  Justice Madsen and Judge Theresa Pouley attended the conference in Green Bay, Wisconsin, July 26-29, 2005.  The conference provided an opportunity to build relationships between state and tribal judges – a number of whom were from Washington State.  Full Faith and Credit and Project Passport projects were discussed.  (STOP Grant funded.)

3.         Genome Justice is scheduled for September 20, 2005 during the 48^th Washington Judicial Conference in Tacoma.  A new legal overview on genetics issues was prepared by Maggie Chon’s research assistant and will be included in the program materials.  (Commission funded.)

4.         Domestic Violence in the Workplace, a 3-hour plenary will be presented by Kathy Cooper Franklin on September 30 at the District and Municipal Court Managers’ Fall Conference in Yakima.  (Commission and STOP Grant funded.)

5.         The 2^nd Annual Domestic Violence Summit will be held in Goldendale on September 30 and October 1.  (Commission funded.)

6.         Promising Judicial Practices in Domestic Violence and Child Dependency Cases, the final workshop funded by the Rural Domestic Violence grant is scheduled for October 7 in Wenatchee.  Teams led by judicial officers from Chelan, Douglas, Grant, and Kittitas counties and the Colville Tribal Court will participate.  (Rural DV Grant funded.)

7.         The Native American Summit in Gender, Family, and Community Violence is scheduled for October 12-13 at the Little Creek Resort in Shelton.  (STOP Grant funded.)

8.         The Importance of Effective Domestic Violence Court Orders, a workshop for judicial officers and pro-tem judges in Clallam, Jefferson, Kitsap, and Mason counties, will be held on October 15 in Bremerton.  (STOP Grant funded.)

9.         The New Frontier, the 27^th Annual Conference of the National Association of Women Judges will be held in Houston, Texas, October 19-23.  Justice Madsen, Judge Linda Tompkins, and Gloria Hemmen will attend.  (Commission funded.)

Initiative for Diversity Commitments

Eileen Concannon reported the work on the diversity commitments continues.  A year ago, twenty-two representatives from across the state convened as the Initiative for Diversity Governing Council (IDGC) to implement commitments to improve advancement for women and minorities in the legal profession.  Progress came to a standstill in the spring.  Justices Madsen and Johnson convened several meetings with minority bar groups to resolve issues and a facilitated group meeting is being scheduled this fall.  It is hoped that 8 Commitments will be agreed upon this fall and circulated statewide to legal employers.

She noted no other state has implemented the commitments although cities have focused on 1 or 2 and Chicago has successfully implemented commitments similar to ours.

Justice Madsen has been working to identify a diversity consultant for the proposed ½ day, facilitated IDGC meeting.  The Minority and Justice Commission and other groups have been approached to assist with the anticipated $5,000 cost.  She will keep the Commission informed of the progress of this project.

Full Faith and Credit

Tom Fallquist reviewed an initial survey of Foreign Protection Orders (FPO) filed in Washington State Courts since 2000.  The numbers are low and inconsistent across the state.  The FPO code does not distinguish between out-of-state and tribal court orders.  In order to get meaningful data about the number of tribal court orders in the judicial information system, we would need to contact each tribe to find out how many orders the tribe issues.  A meeting with the Full Faith and Credit team is tentatively scheduled for January.

Grace Huang noted the individual victim is responsible for getting the order into the state system, not the tribe.  One question is whether survivors know what needs to be done.

Revised Protection Order Forms

Merrie Gough provided an update on the revised, mandatory Domestic Violence Protection Order Form and the Extending Project Passport Project.

In June, the new forms were approved by the Pattern Forms Committee, printed, and distributed to presiding judges, court administrators, county clerks, and prosecuting attorneys with a memo signed by Chief Justice Alexander and Justice Madsen. 

The protection order form was also sent to the Northwest Tribal Court Judges’ Association with a request that they consider adopting the concept of a “recognizable first page” and include data elements from the Washington State Protection Order form. 

Justice Madsen noted the Tribal Court Judges’ Association met in August and recommended tribes adopt the first page.

Merrie noted one court clerk sent her a note passing on law enforcement’s thanks for having the information law enforcement needed on the first page of the form.

Discussion followed on a concern from one judicial officer regarding the “credible threat’ finding on the 2^nd page of the form.  A letter will be sent to the judge explaining why the language was included.

Merrie indicated the next step is updating the first page of the Temporary Order for Protection and the Criminal No Contact Order.  Commission help may be needed to encourage use of these revised forms since they are not mandatory forms.

Several members of the Extending Project Passport team participated in the Western-Pacific Region WebEx Meeting on August 3.  The Washington State Report and revised Orders of Protection forms from the Coeur D’Alene and Hoopa Valley tribal courts, and the California, Hawaii, Nevada, and Washington states were reviewed.

There were positive comments on the Washington forms and some suggestions for improvements which Merrie will pass on to the DV Forms Subcommittee.

Model Workplace Domestic Violence Policy

The Commission reviewed the Domestic Violence in the Workplace Department Policies approved by the Supreme Court Clerk’s Office, Commissioner’s Office, Office of the Reporter of Decisions, Washington State Law Library, and Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC).  All were adapted from the Gender and Justice Commission’s model policy.

Judge Appelwick reported the Court of Appeals Personnel Committee recommended training rather than adopting the model policy.  He and Judge Schindler will present the examples from the Supreme Court Departments for further consideration by the Committee.

Judge Tompkins will present the model policy to the Spokane Superior Court.

Discussion followed on union issues related to the domestic violence policy.  Judge Derr noted she circulated the policy for comment regarding union issues.  Dan Thieme indicated the policy fits under “working conditions” and would be negotiated with each collective bargaining unit.  He will ask Kathy Cooper Franklin to include union issues in her presentation at the District and Municipal Court Managers’ Conference.  Grace Huang has been talking to the Labor Council about the issues.  Tom Fallquist agreed to discuss the issue with the Court Management Council.

It was moved and seconded to approach the Presiding Judges Conference Coordinating Committee regarding providing a presentation on the workplace policy to the judges, considering their responsibilities under General rule (GR) 29.  Motion carried. 

STOP Grants to the Courts

FY05 STOP Grant to the Courts funding of $105,885 is confirmed.  The Senate has approved continuation of the Violence Against Women Act and future funding amounts are being negotiated.

FY03 STOP Grant roll-over funds have been approved by the Office of Crime Victims Advocacy.  Approximately $81,000 will be added to the FY04 grant contract.  That funding is available through March 31, 2006.

FY04 STOP Grant projects will report at the end of September.  Statewide leadership has signed the Domestic Violence/Child Protective Services Protocol.  This project has been funded for the past three years.  Current funding is supporting the statewide coordinating network and convening six regional implementation teams which will design and implement local coordinated response protocols.  Yvonne Pettus reported the Region 5 Protocol roll-out was September 8 in Tacoma and 10 committees have been formed to work on protocols for participating groups.  Regions 4 and 6 have also met.

The Hague Convention Project

Justice Madsen congratulated Brendan Doncker and the Seattle University Law School team that completed The Hague Convention and Domestic Violence chapter for the Domestic Violence Manual for Judges. 

The chapter was completed with input from an Advisory Committee that included Justice Madsen, Judge Schindler, and Lindsay Thompson.

It was suggested that unpublished opinions be included.  Additional comments and changes should be submitted to the team before the chapter is finalized in mid-October.

Proposed Uniform Law on International Child Abduction, National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL)

In July, the Commission responded to a request from the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) for comments on proposed changes to the Uniform Child Abduction Act.  Comments from the Northwest Women’s Law Center and Seattle Law School’s Access to Justice Institute identifying some concerns regarding problematic provisions that could harm women and children and victims of domestic violence were forwarded to the NAWJ and the American Bar Association (ABA).

Judge Appelwick, a member of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL), provided an overview of the NCCUSL’s work from the study committee’s look at the need for a uniform law through the two year drafting and voting processes.  A request is sent to the American Bar Association for endorsement before the proposed uniform law is sent to states for implementation.  He recommended contacting Commission members directly with comments and noted observers are welcome direct contact with the

WSBA Family Law Committee a

Volunteers from the Commission will meet with the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) Family Law Committee in January to begin work on a domestic violence CLE for family law attorneys.

Washington Domestic Violence Fatality Review Project

Jake Faucett thanked the Commission for funding the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence (WSCADV) project to design and implement a new Access database for the Fatality Review Project.  The project collects data from newspapers, court records, and homicide files.  Previously, data had to be entered into three Excel spreadsheets.  Now the data is entered into one data base.  This improves efficiency and accuracy and allows for flexibility in the kind of analysis that can be done and improves their response to requests for information.  He provided three new reports.

Justice Madsen offered the assistance of the Commission to partner with the WSCADV to get information out to the courts.

Trafficking of Women and Children

It was noted the Department of Homeland Security was sponsoring a workshop on Trafficking.  This may be a topic for a future judicial education program.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 12:35 p.m.  The next meeting is scheduled for November 4, 2005. 

Gjcom/minutes/2005/090805/Minutes.doc