The Judicial Council of Georgia, chaired by Chief Justice Boggs, held a General Session in person at the Nathan Deal Judicial Center in Atlanta on August 16th, which was live-streamed and archived. During that meeting, the Judicial Council heard reports from the ARPA Funding, Legislation, Budget, Judicial Security, Technology, Judicial Workload Assessment, Court Interpreters, and Grants Committees. Also during that meeting, we had the opportunity to interview new Judicial Council members and Superior Court Judges Maureen Gottfried and T. Christopher Hughes for our series, “Meet the Members of the Judicial Council of Georgia.” The Judicial Council Standing Committee on Access to Justice, co-Chaired by Justice Verda Colvin and Judge Sara Doyle, also met this month and discussed how to leverage technology—including self-help kiosks and text message reminders—to improve access to justice and lower failure-to-appear rates. The Board of Court Reporting, chaired by Judge Brenda Trammell, met in late August to discuss several matters including testing of Georgia court reporters.
Members of the Judicial Council of Georgia at the August 16, 2024 General Session.
We’d like to bring several informative publications to your attention, including: Better Services for Familiar Faces by Chief Justice Michael Boggs and Supreme Court of New Mexico Justice Briana H. Zamora; Judge Stephen Dillard’s interview with Law360’s “Approach the Bench” podcast; and a child welfare law article co-authored by Georgia’s CIP Director, Diana Rugh Johnson, that was published in NCJFCJ’s magazine. Congratulations to Dr. Will Simmons of Georgia’s 6th Judicial Administrative District and Mr. T.J. BeMent of Georgia’s 10th Judicial Administrative District, who received national recognition recently. We also loved the post by new Judicial Council member, Judge Bert Guy, reflecting on receiving the Past Presidents Award from Judge John Morse at the Council of Superior Court Judges Conference and, truth be told, we were inspired by all of Judge Guy’s posts this month. The Duluth City Council recognized Chief Judge Barrett and Judge Washburn at its August 12th meeting in honor of the awards they recently received from the Council of Municipal Court Judges. We send best wishes for a well-deserved retirement to Effingham County Probate Court Judge Beth Mosley. Thank you to the Georgia Commission on Family Violence for presenting an award to the AOC for its support of that Commission for over 20 years. The AOC administers judicial scholarships to attend this conference each year, which encourages more judges to prioritize domestic violence and sexual assault training and, in addition, the Judicial Council’s Committee on Grants, which is staffed by the AOC, oversees a $2.9 million state appropriation to provide grants to nonprofits for civil legal services to low-income victims of domestic violence.
Judge Robert McBurney was honored with an Amicus Curiae award from the Supreme Court of Georgia on August 21, 2024, for his “leadership and action” during his seven-year tenure as Presiding Officer of the JQC Hearing Panel, which began immediately upon that panel’s restructuring in 2017. The Court profoundly appreciated Judge McBurney’s “care and intellect” during his term of service, which included navigating “novel and unprecedented” issues due to the restructuring, all while also maintaining his significant Superior Court caseload. Congratulations to Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Brian Rickman who will succeed Judge McBurney as Presiding Officer of the JQC Hearing Panel for a three-year term which began on August 6, 2024. A Georgia Court of Appeals panel visited Piedmont University on August 29th. We appreciated the post by the Council of Probate Court Judges featuring their recent training by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which simulated boating under the influence. Thank you for taking the time to learn about this important issue and how to keep our citizens safer.
Juvenile Court Judges from all over Georgia attended Courting Judicial Excellence: A Juvenile Justice Judicial Training Institute—a new, specialized program on delinquency cases jointly developed by the Council of State Governments Justice Center and the NCJFCJ. Georgia is blessed to have Coweta County Probate Judge Carrie Markham recently appointed as the new Chair-elect of the Georgia Commission on Dispute Resolution. We loved Judge Gobeil’s post of the Georgia women appellate judges sharing fellowship and of her hosting a panel discussion at the Savannah Rotary featuring her Court of Appeals colleagues, Chief Judge Amanda Mercier and Presiding Judge Brian Rickman, and Eastern Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Tim Walmsley on the role of judges —and the community —in challenging times. We also applaud Judge Thompson’s post on his recent Veterans Treatment Court graduation. Judge Rickman recently re-posted the video from the special CLE program he hosted in 2022: Reflections on the Murder of Lieutenant Colonel Lemuel Penn. We leave you with Justice Bethel’s loving post about “Gotcha Day” and a reminder to watch our Constitution Day discussion with him and Justice Colvin on September 16, which will be lived streamed and archived on the Judicial Council’s YouTube channel.
Call on us anytime. Talk to you in September.
Your JC/AOC Courts Journal team: Michelle Barclay, Noelle Lagueux-Alvarez, Bruce Shaw, and our contractor, John Ramspott