Legal News

FJD Honored Twice Last Week for Administration of Justice Efforts

By Brian Harris

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff

The First Judicial District was honored last week by the National Judicial College for enacting reforms that raised its performance from the second-slowest court in the country in moving civil cases to being a national leader in innovative court programs. The FJD also was honored by the National Association for Court Management for the court's residential mortgage foreclosure diversion pilot program.

The Advancement of Justice Award has been given annually for five years by the NJC, a group that offers around 90 courses to judges every year. The NAMC's 2009 Justice Achievement Award is an award established to publicly recognize projects that "enhance the administration of justice and can be replicated in other jurisdictions," according to a news release.

Bill Dressel, president of the NJC and a former Colorado state judge, said the FJD was honored this year because it reformed itself by leaps and bounds from a time when it took seven years for civil cases to get to trial. Now with the day-forward case management system, cases get to trial within one to two years, he said.

The court's fraudulent conveyance program, commerce program for business litigation, residential mortgage foreclosure program and its civil electronic-filing system were also reasons for the Philadelphia court system to receive the honor, Dressel said.

"They've made the courts accessible. They've made them timely," Dressel said, adding, "You learn from the past and you move forward. This court continues to move forward."

The award was kept a secret from Philadelphia Common Pleas President Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe until it was announced Monday night, said Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Rosalyn K. Robinson, who as co-chairwoman of the Common Pleas' education committee helped organize the NJC's meeting in Philadelphia this week.

Dembe said she almost burst into tears when the award was announced. Dembe was first elected judge in 1989, when the bench was demoralized by the case backlog and by the Roofers scandal in which a dozen judges were implicated in a massive bribery scheme involving Roofer's Union officials giving out envelopes of cash as Christmas gifts to judges, she said.

Dembe, who was elected as president judge just last fall, said she was pleased that the FJD was recognized for its multiple innovations and as more than "just a one-trick pony."

A Philadelphia judge and a Philadelphia attorney separately received Advancement of Justice Award.

Edward W. Madeira Jr., chairman emeritus of Pepper Hamilton, and Philadelphia Common Pleas Senior Judge Alfred J. DiBona Jr. also received awards.

Madeira was honored because of his work to ensure the independence of the country's judiciary and to have adequate funding for the courts, Dressel said.

DiBona was honored for several initiatives to improve justice, including his work with an American Bar Association commission on case management that DiBona helped involve in improving Philadelphia's case management, Dressel said.

Forty judges are in the city this week for a course on alternative dispute resolution.

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on June 23, 2009 (boomark / email).