Civics Workshop for Teachers

Surveys, talk show hosts and the nightly news remind us that American students are woefully uninformed about even the most basic functions of our government. While no one group or organization can solve this problem on its own, the Indiana Supreme Court—through its “Courts in the Classroom” (CITC) outreach project—is doing its part by [...]

Sealing Court Records: The How and the Why (Not)

Some cases are embarrassing for the parties involved—with free, easy public access to many court records via the Internet, some people rue the day they ever decided to go to the courthouse and file a case.
For a variety of reasons, the parties would rather their employers, in-laws, landlords, or bank loan officers were oblivious to [...]

2014 Legislative Review

Editor’s Note: This report is a condensed version of the full report prepared by the Indiana Judicial Center (IJC) and only contains highlights of selected bills.
The IJC legislative report that contains summaries of all bills of interest passed in the 2014 session can be can be found at: http://indianacourts.us/blogs/legislative. The entire text of any [...]

Designating Criminal Cases after July 1, 2014

New case types are coming when the Criminal Code Revision Act (H.E.A.1006) becomes effective on July 1, 2014 and the court reporting forms have been modified to accommodate the changes. You can preview the new QCSR form at: http://www.in.gov/judiciary/admin/files/courtmgmt-frm-court-2014-qcsr.pdf
On April 23, 2014, the Court approved the following case types to be used for felonies committed [...]

Improved but not perfect: Marion County Small Claims Courts two years later

In May 2012, the Marion County Small Claims Courts Task Force (“Task Force”) issued a report describing serious problems in the management and procedures of the county’s nine small claims courts. This report recommended a number of reform efforts—some of which could be accomplished by local court rule, and others which required legislative action. Before [...]

Indiana Probation Standards revised effective July 1st

The Judicial Conference of Indiana Board of Directors voted unanimously at its March 2014 meeting to approve revisions to the Indiana Probation Standards. The revisions mark the first significant changes to the Probation Standards since 2001 and become effective on July 1st.
The Probation Officers Advisory Board worked on the revisions for two years, with [...]

Chief Justice Dickson Establishes Indiana Committee to Study Evidence-Based Pretrial Release

A newly-established committee of the Supreme Court is working to help Indiana courts implement evidence-based practices for pretrial detention. In his order creating the Indiana Committee to Study Evidence-Based Pretrial Release, Chief Justice Dickson described its purpose:
Research is being done in the field of pre-trial release from detention in the criminal justice process. [...]

On Your Mark, Get Set…Go?

The Ethics of Judicial Campaigns (part 1 of 2)
A whirlwind of activity, the pulse of adrenaline, and general excitement (and despair) loom in the air—it’s the change of season. Racing, you say? No, it’s judicial campaign season.
With the primary elections approaching, I have received an increasing number of questions about judicial elections [...]

Judicial Clerkships for Recently Admitted Attorneys

At the fall 2013 Indiana Judicial Conference, Court of Appeals Judges Margret Robb and Patricia Riley informed trial court judges that together with Indiana’s law schools they had created a Judicial Law Clerk Program to assist new law school graduates and trial court judges. The law schools will identify recent law school graduates who [...]

Judicial Security

Gone are the days when people walk into most public buildings without some sort of security clearance. “It seems that not a month goes by when we hear of a tragic event occurring in the workplace, on a college or school campus, or in a public setting,” warns Indiana Supreme Court Sheriff Gary Miller.
As security [...]

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