Appearance Rates Judicial Curriculum

Missed court appearances are bad for everyone. They can create additional work for courthouse staff and result in inefficiencies in staffing and scheduling. They can frustrate the appearing party and cause delays in a case. And, perhaps most consequentially, a missed appearance can have serious repercussions for communities, and can result in fees and fines, bench warrants, default judgments, license suspensions, and even jail time for the party that failed to appear.

Court leaders around the country have recognized that from a policy, procedural fairness, access to justice, and collateral consequences perspective, something needs to be done to ensure that more people show up to court. This begs the question - what should courts do?

To tackle this, and in collaboration with the Pew Charitable Trusts, the National Center for State Courts has collected national best practices and research about the causes and possible solutions to this problem in the following curriculum. First, in Section 1 you will learn about some of the barriers court users face and reasons they might not appear. Next, in Section 2, you will put that learning to work, and contextualize that information within real data about your community. Then, in Section 3 you will debrief and prepare to take a deeper look at your jurisdiction’s approach to appearance rates. Finally, in Section 4, armed with this information, you will use NCSC’s Appearance Rate Report Card tool to get customized recommendations for ways you can improve appearance rates in your jurisdictions.

Oh -- and you will have fun along the way!