Court Administration Survey

1) 2010. Develop best practices encouraging Courts to regularly impose sanctions on parties who file lawsuits determined to have been intended to perpetrate harassment or abuse. More severe sanctions should be imposed for domestic abuse related cases.
2) 2010. Include issued Harassment Restraining Orders and Orders For Protection information in the publicly viewable area of MNCIS.
3) 2011. Create an automated probation officer alert system from MNCIS to further enhance the ability of probation officers to hold their clients accountable.
4) 2012. Include risk information, safety planning, and referral to advocacy for domestic abuse victims in the self-help packets for child custody/parenting time and dissolution.
5) 2012. Develop an auditing system to verify the accuracy of MNCIS records.
6) 2013. Judges, Referees, and staff from court administration can ensure that all petitioners for Orders for Protection are given a direct referral to a specific domestic violence advocate, rather than a general referral to a help line.
7) 2014. Ensure consistency in expectations across court divisions with orders matching, rather than being in direct contradiction, in juvenile court, family court, and criminal court.
8) 2016. Study the potential benefit of implementing of diversionary dispositions on first time misdemeanor domestic violence offenses that focus on fulfilling six-twelve month clinical intervention requirements designed to decrease likelihood of recidivism.
9) 2017. In cases of domestic abuse, it is essential that court calendars be structured for fast and consistent response. A dedicated calendar with small number of assigned judges is a way to achieve this outcome.
10) 2018. Develop process through which all parties, including the prosecutor and defense attorney, are notified when violations of conditional release are reported to the judge by probation.
11) 2018. Expand channels through which victims in domestic violence cases can communicate with advocates, victim/ witness staff, prosecuting attorneys, jail, and law enforcement to include WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat which can be accessed without a data plan.