We hope you enjoyed a wonderful Independence Day! We enjoyed Judge Dillard’s 4th of July post. We updated our Judicial Council member collage and roster at the beginning of the month. We interviewed the new President of the State Bar of Georgia, Christopher P. “Chris” Twyman. With an eye to the State’s new fiscal year, which began on July 1st, the following Judicial Council Committees met this month: Judicial Workload Assessment, Technology and the Board of Court Reporting. We are pleased to share a video of this year’s Hines Awardees describing what the award means to them. Hines awardees are selected by the Supreme Court of Georgia’s Committee on Justice for Children for excellence in child welfare.
Congratulations to Justice Ben Land who was sworn in to serve on the Supreme Court of Georgia on July 24th. Congratulations as well to Frank O’Connell who was nominated for appointment to serve as the Chief Judge for the newly-created Georgia Tax Court. Two reports were submitted to the Georgia Supreme Court this month: one from the Judicial Council of Georgia Ad Hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence and the Courts, chaired by Justice Andrew Pinson, see: https://ow.ly/CzQg50WkoJE; and the second from the Supreme Court of Georgia’s Study Committee on Legal Regulatory Reform, co-chaired by Justice Carla Wong McMillian and Judge Stephen Dillard, see: https://ow.ly/2BLg50WlF8O. We enjoyed the media story of the celebration of Chief Magistrate Judge Gene Richardson’s distinguished legal career and his deep-rooted commitment to his community and the media story about the 2025 People’s Law School hosted Judge Jason Thompson. Thank you Diana Rugh Johnson for sending us this group picture of Georgia Juvenile Court Judges who attended the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges 88th Annual Conference in Chicago this month and congratulations to Superior Court Judge, and former Juvenile Court Judge, Amanda Heath who is now President-Elect of the NCJFCJ as well as Judge Nhan-Ai Du and Senior Judge Wenona Belton who serve on the Board of Directors. Leadership from every trial-level court in the state as well as leadership from the Georgia Court of Appeals met individually this month with Chief Justice Peterson and Presiding Justice Warren at the Nathan Deal Judicial Center.
We partnered with the Georgia Bar Foundation and the State Bar of Georgia’s Access to Justice Committee to host a forum on Pro Se and Self-Represented Litigant Services. We listened with interest to the Good Judge-ment podcast, Ep. 169: Mentorship with Judge Ana Maria Martinez. Please note that we have Weekly Roundtables as well as regular website updates on the Georgia Case Management System project. We leave you with this video of former Chief Justice Norman Fletcher receiving a legacy award from the Georgia Public Defender Council during its annual conference, where he also learned that Council is establishing an award for outstanding representation in his name.
Call on us anytime. Talk to you in August.
Your JC/AOC Courts Journal team: Michelle Barclay, Noelle Lagueux-Alvarez, Bruce Shaw, and our contractor, John Ramspott