NEWS RELEASE
www.ncsconline.org

Contact: 
Lorri Montgomery
Director of Communications
National Center for State Courts
757.259.1525
lmontgomery@ncsc.dni.us

Future Trends in State Courts 2007 Released

Williamsburg, VA (December 13, 2007) – The National Center for State Courts has published Future Trends in State Courts 2007, the latest in its long-running “Report on Trends in the State Courts” series.  This book, which is produced annually by NCSC’s Knowledge and Information Service, helps to make courts more aware of important trends in society and judicial administration that could affect court operations—and public trust and confidence in the judicial system.

Each edition of Future Trends tries to spark discussion in the courts about important issues.  The 2007 edition opens with just such a discussion about one of the most pressing issues facing the courts:  how to approach “The Future.”  Three prominent futurists—Clem Bezold of the Institute for Alternative Futures, Jim Dator of the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies, and Glen Hiemstra of Futurist.com—join NCSC’s Kathy Mays Coleman and Thomas Clarke and the Arizona Superior Court’s Noreen Sharp in a moderated “blog” about the status of futures studies in the courts.  The panel, with the guidance of moderator Chuck Ericksen, past vice president of NCSC’s Institute for Court Management, discusses many important questions, such as “Why is it so difficult for courts to sustain futures planning?” and “How far forward should courts cast their visions?”

Brief articles on topics of interest to courts follow the futures discussion.  The articles in Future Trends 2007 discuss important developments in three key areas affecting courts:

• Technology, such as how courts are trying to balance the right of public access to court records with the individual’s right to privacy in a digital age and use of technology to help self-represented litigants

• Families and Problem-Solving Courts, such as multidisciplinary partnerships between courts and outside agencies and the coordination of cases involving families

• Promising Practices, such as language interpreters in civil cases and the use of retention elections in judicial elections.

Copies of Future Trends in State Courts 2007 can be obtained by contacting the Knowledge and Information Service at (800) 616-6164.  Online versions of the articles in Future Trends 2007 can be found on the Web at http://www.ncsconline.org/D_KIS/Trends/index.html.

The National Center for State Courts, founded in 1971 by Chief Justice of the United States Warren E. Burger, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the administration of justice and provides leadership, research, technology, education, and training to the state courts. The National Center also is taking the lead on several key issues facing the justice system. For example, the National Center is working to improve citizens’ participation in the jury system, reform the judicial selection process, and develop a model policy on public access to court records. The National Center is headquartered in Williamsburg, Va., with offices in Washington, D.C. and Denver, Colo. 

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National Center for State Courts, 300 Newport Avenue, Williamsburg, VA  23185-4147