I’m happy to introduce a new judge who will help to bring some new perspectives to this Procedural Fairness Blog. And I also want to provide an overview to the resources you can find on our connected websites to learn more about how to make people feel they have been fairly treated in court.
Our new blogger is Judge Pierre Bergeron, who is a judge on Ohio’s First District Court of Appeals, which handles state-court appeals in the Cincinnati area. With just over a year on the bench, Judge Pergeron has those not-yet-distant memories of client reactions to legal proceedings and how things look from the outside. He will add an important new perspective here. He and I plan to provide regular postings throughout 2020.
Let me turn now to what’s available here on this blog and our connected websites. A good starting point is the Bench Card on Procedural Fairness, which we put out in 2018. Cosponsored by the American Judges Association, National Center for State Courts, Center for Court Innovation, and National Judicial College, the bench card puts on two pages the key principles of procedural fairness, tips for trial judges, and links to the leading articles explaining these concepts for a judicial audience.
Beyond that, we have our main website, ProceduralFairness.org, which has links to research papers in both the court and law-enforcement contexts, information about how procedural-fairness concepts have been implemented in courts throughout the United States, and links to other websites in the area.
We also have a set of audio and video resources at ProceduralFairnessGuide.org:
- On the front page, you’ll find four video scenarios—all based on real situations—that could come up in court or in the courthouse. Each scenario is accompanied by a list of discussion questions and links for more information related to that scenario.
- On another tab, we have 11 video interviews with national leaders in procedural fairness. These interviews were done on behalf of the American Judges Association. As a starting point, go to the interviews with Tom Tyler and Emily Gold LaGratta. Prof. Tyler has been the academic leader in this area for decades, and he provides an overview of the basic concepts as well as some of the insights he’s gained over his extended research. LaGratta describes the work she did with the Center for Court Innovation in pilot projects and training programs.
- On a final tab, we have 9 audio podcasts put together by Justine Greve, who used to be a member of my staff at the Kansas Court of Appeals. The first three podcasts are excerpts from the American Judges Association video interviews. She organizes what the various speakers had to say by topic area. The first one suggests ways judges can improve their communication from the bench; another talks about using procedural-fairness principles in rating and training judges; a third explains how procedural fairness functions as the central measure for judging whether an authority is legitimate. For the other six podcasts, Greve interviewed authors of recent articles of interest in the area. These podcasts will provide a great introduction to their research. If you want more, a link to the publication is also included.
This is only a brief overview of what we’ve got available. In later postings, I’ll talk about some of the other materials you might find of use.—Steve Leben
Procedural Fairness For Courts and Judges 