The head of the state\u2019s judicial branch reported on its work to make the state\u2019s court system more accessible to all Nebraskans in his State of the Judiciary address Jan. 22.<\/p>\n
State Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Heavican said the Access to Justice Commission was created to provide equal access to \u201cexpeditious and fair justice for all Nebraskans, regardless of income, race, ethnicity, gender, disability, age or language.\u201d<\/p>\n
To address a shortage of certified court interpreters, Heavican said that the commission\u2019s Language Access Program\u2014which provides interpreters in 49 languages\u2014worked in conjunction with Northeast Community College in Norfolk to provide a no-cost adult education course for aspiring court interpreters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis program is the first of its kind in the nation and is proving to be very successful,\u201d he said, adding that the courts hope to expand the program in the future.<\/p>\n
Heavican said that improving judicial outreach to Nebraska\u2019s four recognized Native American tribes also is a continuing focus of the judiciary. This fall, the commission held grant-funded engagement sessions with tribal, state and federal court representatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese sessions fostered conversations with Nebraska\u2019s Native American communities regarding court relationships, jurisdictional issues and the Indian Child Welfare Act,\u201d he said. \u201cBy organizing and hosting these sessions, we hope to strengthen Native American communities\u2019 confidence in our court system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finally, Heavican highlighted juvenile probation\u2019s successful shift to more in-home and community-based alternatives, while also reducing costs to the state. He specifically noted the use of Victim Youth Conferencing, which allows young offenders to take responsibility for their actions and participate in face-to-face dialogues with their victims.<\/p>\n
The judicial branch continues to face many challenges, he said, but will continue to expand its services and programming in 2020.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Nebraska Judicial Branch remains committed to the delivery of justice in a fair and timely manner,\u201d Heavican said. \u201cWe will carry out this mission efficiently, while continuing to provide equal access for all Nebraska citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The head of the state\u2019s judicial branch reported on its work to make the state\u2019s court system more accessible to all Nebraskans in his State of the Judiciary address Jan. 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ceremonies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Heavican1-22-20a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26995"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26996,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26995\/revisions\/26996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}