Happy Thanksgiving, Georgia Courts Journal Readers,
Many Judicial Council committees and Georgia judicial branch entities met this month. There were twin meetings on Friday, November 7th, when the Judicial Council Ad Hoc Committee on American Rescue Plan Act Funding and the Board of Court Reporting each convened. The following Friday, the Judicial Council Standing Committee on Judicial Workload Assessment was called to order, and the week of November 17th entailed meetings of the Judicial Council Committee on Court Interpreters, the Judicial Council Standing Committee on Legislation, and the Judicial Council Standing Committee on Access to Justice.
The Georgia Courts Case Management SystemTeam has exciting news. After almost a year gathering input from stakeholders across the state followed by many months of design and development, onboarding began at 23 courts all over Georgia this month. We enjoyed seeing these pictures of CMS Team members supporting courts in Evans, Jeff Davis, and Tattnall Counties.
November is National Veterans & Military Families Month, and we used the opportunity to highlight the life-changing work of Georgia’s Veterans Treatment Courts—supported by the Council of Accountability Court Judges—by featuring success stories from Model Courts throughout the state. Thank you to the judges who participated in that inspirational series: Chief Judge Brenda Weaver and her team at the Appalachian Judicial Circuit Veterans Court; Chief Judge Robert Russell, III, and his team at the Atlantic Judicial Circuit Veterans Court; Judge Robert Leonard, II, and his team at the Cobb County Veterans Accountability and Treatment Court; and Judges Joseph Wyant, Nina Baker, and Emory Palmer and their team at the Coweta County Veterans Treatment Court.
Congratulations to Georgia Court of Appeals Presiding Judge Stephen Dillard, who was honored with the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence at the U.S. Supreme Court on November 20th. Kudos to Municipal Court Judge Ronald Freeman who was recently inducted into the Gate City Bar Association Hall of Fame. Our hats off to the Georgia Office of Dispute Resolution for hosting the very well-attended 32nd Annual ADR Institute on November 19th.
Several judges and attorneys participated in the annual Out of the Darkness Walk in support of suicide prevention on November 2nd in Atlanta. We enjoyed working on this feature about our colleague, Jessica Jones, Information Technology Operations Manager at the Judicial Council/AOC. GCCA has released a new podcast on the topic of strategic planning which features Mike Hourihan from the Carl Vinson Institute of Government. The Good Judge-ment Podcast also added to its line-up, and we invite you to check out these informative sessions: Episode 174-Legal Privileges; Episode 175-Updates in Domestic Relations Law with Vic Valmus, Part I; Episode 176-Updates in Domestic Relations Law with Vic Valmus, Part II; and Episode 177-Unit of Prosecution.
We leave you with this heartfelt Thanksgiving message from AOC Director Cynthia Clanton.
Call on us anytime. Talk to you in December
Your JC/AOC Courts Journal team: Noelle Lagueux-Alvarez, Bruce Shaw, JoAnna Deering, and our contractor, John Ramspott