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atlantabar.org
expanded our hours to make it more
convenient for the public and law en-
forcement. We also upgraded court-
room technology to make it easier for
families to observe court proceedings.
Additionally, we completed a pilot proj-
ect for electronic filing in dispossessory
and small claims actions to simplify the
process for litigants.
CJ Aten: Prior to becoming a judge, I
kept a robust community service cal-
endar of events, and it has been ex-
tremely important to me to increase
court-to-community engagement and
educational opportunities during my
judicial tenure. In 2013, I created an
innovative pro se litigant assistance
program, the Smart Justice Series, de-
signed to promote public confidence in,
24 June/July 2017
and awareness of, our judicial system.
Smart Justice is a free, court-sponsored
lecture program that provides gen-
eral procedural information to the
public. Smart Justice, which airs on
Comcast Channel 23 and Vimeo.com,
has covered elder abuse and exploita-
tion, trial procedure, garnishments and
residential landlord-tenant disputes
among other important legal topics. I
also started an annual single-day camp
for local middle-and high-school stu-
dents. I love visiting the schools and
talking about law but for students re-
ally interested in the legal profession,
a courtroom visit and learning about
the law from diverse perspectives and
activities, as offered by the Youth Law
Camp, leaves an indelible impression
and makes it real for kids.
CJ Blum: We’ve worked on a number
of projects that try and make the Court
system easier to navigate. My favorite
project is a brochure series we created
to educate our litigants on basic court
processes before they get to Court.
The series covers dispossessory ac-
tions, civil cases, family violence, gar-
nishments, warrant applications and
abandoned motor vehicles. They are
all color coded and available in four
different languages!
CJ Camp: We hold video bond hearings
from the courthouse so that the Sheriff’s
Office does not have to transport the
inmates from the jail to the courthouse.
We have also begun using e-warrants
when we issue criminal warrants. Our
next project will be electronic filing
for civil cases.
CJ Dallas: There are 3 goals that I have
for Clayton County. The first is to work
with the other judges in my circuit to
assist with accountability courts. Mag-
istrate Court is uniquely positioned
to be the first source of contact for every
individual that comes into the judicial
system. As such, we can refer people
into the mental health and/or veteran's
treatment courts.
My second goal is to partner with the
school system. I notice that a significant
majority of young persons who are still
in high school, come into court for a
variety of offenses. This suggests to me
that they need more attention. I make
it a point to visit all of the high schools
in this county to establish a connection
between our court and the students. The
third project is ensuring that Hispanic
victims in the county have individuals
who speak their language. I have met
with Hispanic ministers and we are
working on a program that will focus on
providing a trained person of Hispanic
descent to translate for and provide
counseling to our Latino community.
CJ Kirk: Since 2015, I have sought to
increase the usability of Fulton Magis-
trate Court for our litigants. Our Court
was selected as a demonstration site for
a Civil Justice Initiative project through
the National Center for State Courts
and the Institute for the Advancement
of the American Legal System (IAALS).
This Project will help us focus on our
three High Volume calendars, simpli-
fying garnishments, dispossessory and
small claims. We are creating Fulton
County specific videos and pamphlets
and identified stakeholders in each area
with whom we will work to improve
our implementation.
What is your reaction
to the fact there are
now seven metro-At-
lanta Magistrate Courts
where the Chief Judge
is a woman?
CJ Aten: I feel honored to be amongst
this phenomenal group of women ser-
vant leaders. We meet as often as we
can and truly support each other with
sound advice, lessons learned, problem-
solving and genuine concern for one
another’s professional success.