2008 State of the Judiciary

The Honorable Ruth V. McGregor
Chief Justice, Arizona Supreme Court

Delivered February 5, 2008 to a joint session of the
Second Regular Session of the 48th Legislature

State of the Judiciary Address
The Honorable Ruth V. McGregor
Chief Justice, Arizona Supreme Court
President Bee, Speaker Weiers, members of the Arizona Senate and House of
Representatives, judges, volunteers, guests and fellow Arizonans.
Thank you for inviting me once again to speak with you about the Arizona Judicial
Branch.
Joining me today are Vice Chief Justice Rebecca Berch, Justice Michael Ryan,
Justice Andy Hurwitz and Justice Scott Bales. It is our honor to head the Arizona
judicial system, a system that is respected and emulated throughout the country.
Arizona’s court system owes its status to the past and continuing efforts of not only
our judges, but also our Clerks of Court, our administrators, employees, and
thousands of public volunteers who bring their energy and dedication to improving
our courts.
We recognize our responsibility to be accountable. Courts, of course, are
accountable first for upholding the rule of law. But we also are accountable for
ensuring that the public has access to a fair, efficient justice system. This annual
address is one of many steps we take to inform you and the public about how your
courts are fulfilling their duties. Today, I will tell you of the progress we have
made, including that in some programs I first described for you last year.
When I became Chief Justice nearly 3 years ago, the public told us that they
wanted the court system to do a better job of processing DUI cases. Echoing that
concern, this body has enacted a number of laws intended to reduce the frequency
of DUI offenses. We understand that, unless our courts can process DUI cases
efficiently and fairly, the effectiveness of the laws you adopted is reduced. After
carefully analyzing the problem by establishing a Task Force in 2005, we
established a pilot project in courts statewide. The courts in the pilot project
applied new procedures to process DUI cases. I am pleased to report that we found
great success. The pilot courts reduced the number of DUI cases that had been
pending for more than 180 days by 77 percent. We reduced the time from filing of
a case until trial, and resolved cases more quickly, without compromising the
constitutional rights of defendants.



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Because of the pilot project success, we will implement our new procedures
statewide in limited jurisdiction courts during 2008. By processing DUI cases
more efficiently, our courts contribute to reducing the problems related to DUI
offenses.
We also must be accountable for finding ways to help the public when they come
into contact with the court system, particularly those without lawyers or formal
legal training. Looking for help, they ask court staff to tell them what to do. But
court staff are limited in what they may say because, while they can provide legal
information, they may not give legal advice. Lack of clarity about the distinction
between advice and information caused confusion for staff and frustration for the
public. To draw clear guidelines for the public and court staff, last year I created
the Legal Information Task Force, which reported its work in 2007. The guidelines
created by the Task Force and adopted by our court should go far to assist both the
public and court communities.
We have taken other steps to help self-represented litigants and rest of the public:
we created guides, available on court web sites, to help people appeal from
decisions in their cases; we enacted the Arizona Rules of Family Law Procedure,
which were the first of their kind in the nation, to make it easier for the large
majority of litigants who try to navigate family court without lawyers. We will
continue to find new ways to ensure that the public has well-informed access to the
courts.
We also are accountable to those members of the public who fulfill their civic
obligation to serve as jurors when called. We have worked for years to make jury
service a better experience for jurors.
Recently, we have worked together with this body to develop laws that both
improve the justice system and help the public.
Nearly five years ago, you passed legislation to better compensate jurors who serve
on lengthy trials. When we first implemented this legislation, jurors received
additional juror pay if they served ten days or more. Over time, we learned that the
lengthy jury fund you established could fund those who serve on trials of four days




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or more. You made the statutory change needed to extend lengthy trial pay, and we
have implemented it.
Last year we asked you to enact legislation to minimize the amount of traveling a
juror needs to do in counties with more than one court location, while keeping the
jury system constitutionally compliant. And we thank you for doing just that.
We also made jury service more convenient by offering “Online Jury Service
Selection,” which allows those called as jurors to go online to find a date that is
convenient for them to serve. Today, we offer this service to nearly 80 percent of
Arizona jurors, and every county will offer the program by the end of 2008.
While jury service provides one route for the public to come into contact with the
court, another more painful route occurs when a person becomes the victim of a
crime. Our courts have worked hard to better address the needs and rights of crime
victims, while always maintaining court neutrality and also assuring the rights of
defendants. In 2006, I created the Commission on Victims in the Courts, to help us
meet our obligations to victims of crime.
One of the Commission’s recommendations, now implemented in Maricopa
County, involved the creation of a service that allows crime victims to receive
email updates about their Superior Court cases. More than 6,000 people have
registered for this program, and 10,000 notices have been sent to victims keeping
them apprised of the status of their case.
We are currently working with a private contractor to develop an urgently-needed
new case management system that, when completed and implemented, will allow
us to expand this and other critical services to other counties. Victims also told the
Commission that it would be helpful if they could receive notification about when
an appellate decision would be published. All of our appellate courts now offer
this service by providing notice the day before an opinion is released.
When we think of crime victims, we usually think of adults. But those impacted by
or involved in the court system also include society’s most vulnerable members,
Arizona’s children.




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The courts generally become involved with children and their families when abuse
or neglect allegations occur. The court system offers a number of services to help
both parents and children during these difficult times. We could not provide these
critical services without the help of hundreds of public volunteers, whom we thank
for their service.
The Court, for instance, operates the Court Appointed Special Advocate or CASA
program. This program matches adult volunteers with dependent children so that
the court can hear an independent, volunteer voice who speaks solely for the child
in a dependency case.
In addition to using our 800 CASA volunteers, the courts protect our families and
communities through our Foster Care Review Board. This Board provides a citizen
review process to monitor the progress of children who have been removed from
their homes. Today, 500 Board volunteers work to ensure the wellbeing of the
9700 children who have been removed from their homes. We are so grateful for
those citizen volunteers. The value of their unique and selfless role in protecting
children cannot be overestimated.
We also must hold ourselves accountable for assisting other court users who have
particular needs, including the many court users who file petitions alleging
domestic abuse each year. To help address the specific needs of these members of
our community, the Arizona Supreme Court adopted court rules that govern and
simplify the administration of protective order cases.
In addition, we adopted new uniform protective order forms, designed to ensure
easier recognition and greater enforcement by law enforcement agencies in all
jurisdictions. Those forms are now in use in all Arizona courts, as well as in many
courts across the country. I am proud to report that, once again, Arizona was a
leader in this initiative to develop uniform forms.
In a related area, the appellate courts recognized the need to resolve more quickly
cases involving the severance of parental rights. Potential adoptive parents,
biological parents, and especially the children involved need and deserve prompt
resolution of these cases. By adopting new procedures for considering these cases
on appeal, we expect to reduce substantially the time needed to complete the
appellate process.



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It is unrealistic for me to ignore the very real challenge the state budget poses.
During the last fiscal crisis, the Court looked for ways to contribute to solving the
problem. Our solution was to create the “FARE” program, which upholds the rule
of law by requiring that court orders be enforced and that defendants pay the fines,
fees, and restitution that they owe but have avoided paying. Through the FARE
program, we found new ways to bring in old “accounts receivable” owed by
defendants. By using FARE, we have recovered more than $100 million dollars.
This revenue source does not stay with the courts; some goes to crime victims, and
the rest supports city, county, and state programs. At the same time as we worked
to recover old debts, we collected more than $350 million dollars in current fines,
fees, and restitution last year.
The courts also recognize that the public, quite properly, holds the courts
accountable to them. While we measure accountability in a number of ways, I will
tell you about a few of those measures today.
One way of assuring accountability is by implementing appropriate performance
measures, which allow us both to identify areas of excellence and to define those
areas needing improvement. I am pleased today to announce that, during 2007, all
fifteen of our Superior Courts participated in an “Access and Fairness” survey.
After administering nearly 6,000 surveys statewide, we found that 91 percent of
those who took the surveys reported that they were treated with courtesy and
respect, a result that is a great tribute to our court staffs. Seventy-seven percent
said that their case was handled fairly; and 85 percent said that they left the court
knowing what to do next.
We assess every part of the justice system, but one group necessarily comes under
particular scrutiny: judicial officers. It is critically important that the public have
trust and confidence in their judicial officers, and our surveys say they do.
Seventy-eight percent of the respondents to the statewide “Access and Fairness”
survey said that the judge in their case had the information necessary to make good
decisions. These results are particularly meaningful when we consider that many
of those completing the survey did not prevail in their cases. But this is not our
only measure of judicial performance.




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We utilize another detailed method to measure and report on the judicial
performance of our merit selection judges in Pima and Maricopa County Superior
Courts and our appellate courts. The Judicial Performance Review (JPR) process,
established by Arizona voters in 1990, covers 75 percent of our state judges. In
2006, court users, including litigants, witnesses, lawyers, jurors, were surveyed
about their experiences with those judges who would be on the merit retention
ballot.
The results were published in the statewide voter pamphlet as well as on a website.
And the results were impressive. Ninety-seven percent rated our merit selection
judges as “Satisfactory” or higher, and eighty-seven percent rated these judges as
“Very Good” or “Superior.” Once again, the results include ratings from many
litigants who did not obtain the relief they sought from the courts.
The “Access and Fairness” survey and JPR results reveal the attitudes of court
users toward Arizona’s judges and courts. But Arizona court users are not the only
body that expresses trust and confidence in the Arizona Judicial Branch. The
annual survey by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, for instance, consistently ranks
the Arizona judicial system as one of the “best” state court systems in the nation.
We constantly look for ways to measure the performance of our judges and courts
and will continue to emphasize the need to be transparent and accountable to the
public we serve.
Any justice system is affected, for good or bad, by the lawyers who practice within
it. This year, the State Bar of Arizona celebrates its 75th anniversary. We
congratulate the Bar and thank its members for their service to the law and our
communities. In 2006 alone, Arizona lawyers provided more than 100,000 hours
in pro-bono and charitable efforts.
It is in this tradition of service that I am pleased to introduce the legal community’s
latest volunteer effort: “Lawyers Helping Homeowners.”
The state budget is not alone in being negatively impacted by Arizona’s financial
downturn. Many people, including our families, friends and neighbors, are
overwhelmed by the impact of skyrocketing adjustable mortgage payments that
they cannot meet. Many do not realize that they have options other than



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foreclosure. So today I am calling on the lawyers of Arizona to assist homeowners
to negotiate a loan to save a home.
The “Lawyers Helping Homeowners” program will use the efforts and expertise of
volunteer lawyers to assist homeowners working with their lenders to negotiate
reasonable payment terms, rather than default on their loans. The Arizona
Foundation for Legal Services and Education and the Volunteer Lawyers Program,
with the State Bar, will play important roles in making this program a success. This
initiative should provide hope to many, who otherwise have none.
The Judicial Branch, like the other branches of government, touches every
community in our state. Arizona’s judicial system has gained the trust of the public
and works hard every day to deserve that trust. We ask for your support and
assistance as we continue to fulfill our duties to the rule of law on which this
country is founded and that has allowed us to prosper. Thank you for the
opportunity to speak with you today.




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