Public Outreach – Annual Report 2021
Federal judges and court staff conducted a variety of public outreach and communications efforts to improve public understanding of the Judiciary’s role in American democracy.
The AO created this video as part of its Court Shorts series explaining the way courts work and their role in American democracy.
Audio Streaming Pilot
A two-year pilot program to evaluate audio streaming of oral arguments in district court civil cases of public interest was launched in 13 courts in February 2021. The live broadcasts give the public access to real-time courtroom audio streamed over the internet. The Judicial Conference in March 2021 expanded the pilot to allow the Court of Federal Claims and some bankruptcy courts to participate in 2022.
The program will help identify livestreaming-related policy, technical, operational, budgetary, and administrative issues that the Conference’s Committee on Court Administration and Case Management can consider when evaluating potential amendments to the Judiciary’s broadcast policy. The Committee recruited volunteer courts of varying sizes and from different regions to serve as pilot courts.
Audio streaming of civil proceedings requires the parties’ consent and is subject to the presiding judge’s discretion. The pilot excludes trials or civil proceedings involving jurors, witnesses, or sealed, confidential, or classified materials. Guidelines for bankruptcy courts generally track the guidelines for district courts, but they include a few modifications that address specific types of proceedings held in bankruptcy courts, such as adversary proceedings.
PACER Survey and Public User Group
The Administrative Office (AO) conducted a web-based user satisfaction survey over the summer of 2021 to a random sample of 60,000 customers of PACER, which stands for Public Access to Court Electronic Records. It is the main source of court records for the public, litigants, the media, academic institutions, and others. The survey was aimed at gathering information about how to improve electronic access to court case documents. It generated 6,000 confidential responses, which will be publicly reported in the aggregate. PACER improvements were made after similar user assessments in 2009 and 2012.
Additional feedback was gathered throughout 2021 from the PACER Public User Group, 12 people from diverse backgrounds in the law, media, government, and academia who provide advice and feedback on ways to improve PACER and other Judiciary electronic public access services. Members of the group, which was formed in 2020, were selected based on user type, level of experience using PACER, frequency of usage, an account status in good standing, and a commitment to collecting additional feedback from their peers. Meeting agendas, minutes, and other relevant information are made available online.
Civics Education
The AO’s national distance learning initiative entered its second school year with the launch of Civil Discourse and the Constitution: Candid Conversations, a virtual program that brings judges and attorney volunteers into classrooms to listen to students’ questions and concerns. Using a discussion-starter video on the rule of law, high school students work together the day before the event to write questions for the program. The pilot was conducted in Miami at the Federal Bar Association’s (FBA) annual conference in September. More than 40 judges and attorneys from across the country participated, reaching about 550 students in classrooms at 12 high schools in Florida. The model was shared with other courts with the assistance of local FBA chapters. It is part of a portfolio of distance-learning initiatives established by the AO during the COVID-19 pandemic and designed for long-term use in schools too far from a federal courthouse for in-person field trips.
Video Outreach and Training During Pandemic
With travel severely limited by the pandemic in 2021, the AO used video storytelling to assist teachers and community groups with civics education efforts. A series called Court Shorts explains fundamentals about the courts and their role in American democracy in easy-to-understand video formats of less than 10 minutes. One episode features 10 federal judges discussing the impact of an impartial judiciary on daily life, how the Constitution safeguards judicial impartiality, and how judges maintain their impartiality in the cases and controversies that come before them. A second installment features judges discussing the jury system and jurors as their partners in justice and as an integral part of a fair and impartial judicial process.
Virtual conferences and workshops for judges, court executives, federal defenders, probation and pretrial services staff, and other employees increased significantly during 2021, which helped provide essential professional development training. Among the most attended training sessions was a series in the fall about workplace conduct and the Employment Dispute Resolution (EDR) process. The webcasts were attended by over 6,000 judges, managers, and Judiciary employees.