2021 Judicial Conference Program

1 Public Notice created regarding form changes: • In order to communicate and explore COVID-19 relief to tenants and/or landlords, the Maryland Judiciary’s Self-Help Centers have compiled a list by county of COVID-19 resources available. Both the DC-CV-082 - Failure to Pay Rent - Landlord’s Complaint and the DC-CV-082MH - Failure to Pay Rent - Park Owner’s Complaint were revised to add the following notice: For information about rental assistance programs or about how the law applies to your situation, contact the court’s Self-Help Center. By phone: 410-260-1392 Online: https://mdcourts.gov/selfhelp. Translations 156 forms were sent to the Access to Justice Department to be translated into five (5) languages, Spanish, Chinese, French, Korean, and Russian. A total of 782 translations were processed. Completed translations are posted at: https://mdcourts.gov/district/forms. Guide & File Interviews Reviewed and Approved DCHQ Administrative Services and the Access to Justice Department have been working on interactive guided interviews that ask a filer questions and uses their answers to fill out a court form. Resources are provided in the interviews. The program produces complete and legible forms that, in the near future, may be electronically filed directly from the program. The COVID-19 pandemic halted testing in the Court Help Centers but two interviews will be posted and closely monitored before the program is announced to the public: • DC-CV-001 Civil Complaint • CC-DC-089 Petition for Waiver of Prepaid Costs Multiple (19) other interviews are in the creation and approval process. A Guide & File Interview Index will be posted, and interviews will be added as they are approved. Links to the interviews will also be included on related self-help webpages. Joint Subcommittee on Communication & Access to Judicial Information The Joint Communication & Access Subcommittee is a joint subcommittee of the Court Access & Community Relations Committee, the Court Technology Committee, and the Court Operations Committee. The subcommittee is responsible for developing programs to promote communications within the Judiciary, with attorneys and parties, as well as the public, while considering the impact on court operations, court technology, and enhancing access to the Judiciary’s information. Throughout Fiscal Year 2020, subcommittee staff worked with an outside vendor to implement additional enhancements to the Judiciary’s Data Dashboard, an interactive website that provides critical court data to internal and external stakeholders as well as to the public. The dashboard contains information from the Annual Statistical Abstract and the Annual Case Flow Assessment reports, including filings and disposition data. The Fiscal Year 2020 enhancements to the dashboard will add district court commissioner data as well as data on Access to Justice initiatives, including Language Services and Court Help Centers. Jury Use and Management Subcommittee The Jury Use and Management Subcommittee is responsible for addressing operational issues that confront jury offices. The subcommittee has continued to work on several ongoing projects, though some were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The subcommittee has drafted a script and sought vendors to produce a grand jury orientation video similar to the video shown to petit jurors prior to jury selection. Filming is suspended due to the pandemic; however, the subcommittee looks forward to resuming production as soon as safely possible. During the reporting period, the subcommittee created a handout to assist jurors after they serve on particularly emotional or stressful trials. The subcommittee has created a handout entitled Tips for Coping with Stress , which is currently being finalized.

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