Greetings Courts Journal Readers:
November is National Veterans and Military Families Month, which gives us a month-long opportunity to recognize our Georgia judges and court staff who are veterans. Thank you to all who collaborated with us on that effort, your service to our country is deeply appreciated. We also reached out to the Council of Accountability Court Judges to help us communicate with the many judges and staff members throughout the state who preside over and manage Veteran Treatment Courts. We loved the stories you sent to us; they were inspiring and full of hope. We have a new explainer video about the Judicial Council, and we appreciate Chief Justice Boggs and Chief Judge Mercier narrating the new video.
We enjoyed the State Bar of Georgia’s wellness podcast, which featured Chief Justice Boggs, and we’ll be hosting a wellness event of our own on December 14th at 1:00 p.m., which will highlight three speakers: an expert on nutrition, an expert on sleep, and Judge Stephen Dillard, who will talk to us about his year-long exercise journey. We will livestream that panel on Zoom and archive it for you to view or listen to later, if you are unable to join us live. Please also save the date, Friday, February 23, 2024, for the 33rd Annual Georgia Bar, Media, & Judiciary Conference at the State Bar Building in Atlanta. Judges and judicial staff are invited to attend that conference free of charge and a promo registration code will be distributed once available in late January. Judge Tabitha Ponder and Judicial Council/AOC staffer Deonte Mayfield were featured as strategic partners in the Georgia Legal Services Program newsletter. Don’t forget to read our Judicial Council/AOC IT Division’s Court Tech Talk newsletter, available here: https://jcaoc.georgiacourts.gov/court-tech-talk/.
Judge Michael Key was sworn in for another term as Chair of the Child Support Commission, as were five other members, and we are grateful to all of you for your service to Georgia’s child support system. Long-time Judicial Council/AOC staffer, Elaine Johnson, who serves as Executive Program Manager to the Commission, was recognized at the November meeting with a letter of commendation from Chief Justice Boggs, in anticipation of her retirement on March 1, 2024. The Child Support Commission staff also taught a class at the successful ADR Institute hosted by the Georgia Commission on Dispute Resolution, which took place on November 16th. Several Judicial Council Committees met this month, including: Access to Justice, Judicial Workload Assessment, and Legislation. The Criminal Data Exchange Board met as well. Don’t miss the latest Good Judge-ment podcasts about sentencing and closing arguments, and Henry County Judge Knights’s second podcast.
Thank you, Judge David Will, for speaking at the Judicial Council/AOC All Staff Meeting. We were impacted by your stories about decisions you’ve had to make for your community while on the bench. We loved the pictures and videos of National Adoption Day from Gwinnett and Fulton. A warm congratulations to TJ BeMent, who was inducted into the Warren E. Burger Society. Congratulations as well to retired Judge Bill Adams, ’77 who received a Meritorious Service Award and to Superior Court Judge John Morse, Jr., ’82, who received the Outstanding Alumnus Award from Mercer Law School and to Cobb County for celebrating the 20th anniversary of their Drug Treatment Court. Kudos to Evans County Magistrate Court Judge Genie Miller for providing a civics lesson about the courts to her local high school. We leave you with a gratitude post that we made before Thanksgiving with our Director, Cynthia Clanton.
Call on us anytime. Talk to you in December.
Your JC/AOC Courts Journal team: Michelle Barclay, Noelle Lagueux-Alvarez, Bruce Shaw, and our contractor, John Ramspott