How to Handle Expungements

In regards to court records, what is expungement? When is it authorized? How is it accomplished?
Black’s Law Dictionary tells us to expunge is “to destroy or obliterate; blot out; efface designedly; strike out wholly.”
Express authority for courts to order expungement of records in Indiana is rather limited. Statutory authority for expungement of arrest records is [...]

Problem Solving Courts in Indiana

All Indiana judges are familiar with the “revolving door” of the criminal justice system.  Individuals are sentenced for relatively minor criminal offenses, only to return months later facing new and frequently more serious charges. While terms of imprisonment seem to curb criminal activity for a period of time, eventually the re-offending individual reverts back to [...]

Revisiting the Vision

The state of Indiana trial court technology ten years after JTAC’s founding and a reminder about how we got here in the first place—
Two years into the deployment of Indiana’s uniform statewide Odyssey case management system (CMS), 51 courts in 19 counties are up and running, managing more than 22% of the state’s caseload.  Now, [...]

Help is at Hand

Senior Judges Can Ease the Burden of Crowded Court Calendars -
Let’s suppose you opened your mail this morning and found a catalog full of interesting classes being offered next year by the National Judicial College.  Or perhaps your spouse called with the news that your son or daughter was finishing special military training at Pensacola [...]

Crossing Barriers

Newly sworn court interpreters ready to play their part in providing greater access to justice for non-English speakers
The capital city of Lima, Peru in South America, with its mild climate and population of around eight million people, is 3600 miles from central Indiana. But Massiel Krall, originally from Lima, was recently certified as an Indiana [...]

Seeds of Knowledge

In June 2009, teachers from around the state had the opportunity to learn about the history and operation of the judicial branch when Courts in the Classroom hosted the second annual From the Inside Out:  How Indiana’s Courts Work.
This two-week graduate level course for teachers was offered through the IUPUI School of Education and sponsored [...]

100 Law Enforcement Agencies Now Use the eTicket System

Reaching the 100 mark is momentous for birthdays and businesses. Celebrations fitting for the occasion usually include parties and cakes along with speeches and pictures.  On June 8th, an unlikely guest of honor, traffic tickets, celebrated the triple digit number.  Getting a traffic ticket can lead a person to proclaim, “It was a bad day.” [...]

Saving Green: How courts can meet budget constraints with eco-friendly practices

Not everyone considers being called a “tree hugger” a compliment, but when we can do something for the environment and save money, well that’s something everyone can wrap their arms around.  Like other states around the country, Indiana is faced with budget concerns at all levels of government. When budgets are tight, we look for [...]

Celebrating Lincoln

The Indiana Supreme Court partnered with the Indiana State Bar Association to host a statewide birthday bash for Abraham Lincoln. The 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth was February 12, 2009. Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard invited attorneys to join him in honoring America’s 16th President by visiting classrooms around the state.
It is estimated that 30,000 [...]

Recession Hits Home: The Mortgage Foreclosure Crisis and Our Indiana Courts

The national mortgage crisis is hitting our state very hard.  In 2007 there were 43,804 mortgage foreclosure cases filed in Indiana trial courts, an increase of around 50% in the cases filed just five years ago.  The explosion of new cases is causing judges to rethink how they deal with the civil filings that have [...]

Next Page »