Track 1: Judicial Tools: An Opportunity to Rethink How Courts Conduct Business
Wednesday, September 23, 3:15 PM - 4:30 PM
Location: Auditorium 1
Presenters: Laurie Dudgeon, Hon. O. John Kuenhold, Hon. Constance Russell, Hon. Mark Singer
Track: Tools for the 21st-Century Judge
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What are Judicial Tools? Gee-whiz apps and programs that help judges work with electronic court records, right? But wait, are these tools simply automating existing processes? That might work well in some situations, but considering many of those processes only existed to support a paper-based culture, we may be missing an opportunity to significantly change and improve the way courts conduct business. This session explores, from a judges perspective, opportunities and efficiencies that could be realized as we embark on projects to help judges manage their cases in an increasingly e-everything world.
Session Materials
About the Presenters
Ms. Dudgeon administers the $387 million Judicial Branch budget, monitors legislation related to the courts, and works with county, state and national officials on issues affecting the Kentucky court system. She also provides administrative support to Kentucky’s 403 elected justices, judges and circuit court clerks. Ms. Dudgeon has streamlined the AOC’s organizational structure and maintained a balanced Judicial Branch budget during the state’s financial crisis. She relocated the AOC’s office building in Frankfort to save costs and is leading efforts to implement eFiling in the state court system. Dudgeon holds a bachelor’s degree and juris doctor from the University of Kentucky.
Judge Kuenhold was appointed to the District Court in 1981 and was Chief Judge of the Twelfth Judicial District and the Water Judge for Water Division 3 (Rio Grande Basin) from 2004 to his retirement in 2011. Judge Kuenhold sat in all six counties that comprise the 12th Judicial District, hearing appeals from county court and cases arising under criminal, civil, juvenile, domestic relations, water and mental health law. Judge Kuenhold received his law degree from the University of Michigan in 1969, the same year he was admitted to the Colorado Bar. He received a Reginald Heber Fellowship in Poverty Law and worked for Colorado Rural Legal Services for five years before entering private practice.
Judge Kuenhold is currently engaged in private mediation and arbitration of water cases and complex civil litigation. Judge Kuenhold also consults in the areas of court technology and administration, criminal justice and community corrections. He is a member of the national COSCA-NACM Joint Technology Committee. He is a frequent lecturer and instructor on water law, ethics and court technology. Judge Kuenhold was a nominee to the Supreme Court of Colorado in 1995. He was recognized by the Colorado Judiciary as the Outstanding Judicial Officer in 2006 and received a Judicial Excellence Award from the Colorado Judicial Institute in 2011.
Judge Constance Russell is a circuit court judge serving on the Fulton County Superior Court located in Atlanta, Georgia. Judge Russell has been on the bench since 1996 and has participated in several technology implementation projects during her tenure. Most recently she led the Superior Court team involved in implementation of an integrated criminal justice technology system for the Fulton County courts and justice system agencies. Judge Russell is a member of the JTC Judicial Tools Work Group. She was one of the drafters of the first judicial tools JTC paper and is currently involved in the drafting of a second paper on the topic. Judge Russell has served as a subject matter expert for the development of a web based judicial workflow tool. She has spoken before the National Association of Court Management (NACM) on the topic of judicial tools.
Mark D. Singer has served as a county judge, Manatee County, Florida, since 2005. He was reelected without opposition in 2008 and 2014 and has served as county court administrative judge since 2010. Judge Singer is an expert in the development, deployment, and application of Web-based court-viewer technology in courtrooms throughout the country. He has made presentations on this subject to the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) and the National Association for Court Management (NACM), and he is currently a member of the Judicial Tools Workgroup of the Joint Technology Committee established by NCSC, NACM, and the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA).