Court Review: Volume 44, Issue 1/2 – Procedural Fairness in the California Courts

Authors

Douglas Denton, California Administrative Office of the Courts, San Francisco

Date of this Version

2007

Document Type

Article

Comments

Published in Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association, 44:1/2. Copyright © 2007-2008 National Center for State Courts. Used by permission.

Abstract

In 2005, California’s judicial branch embarked on a two-part assessment to determine current levels of trust-and-confidence in the state courts and to obtain information concerning expectations and performance of the state courts. The findings were revealing—they highlighted good news for the courts and identified considerable challenges. The trust-and-confidence study not only informed the subsequent strategic and operational planning processes, it also spurred a large-scale initiative focused on one particularly compelling aspect of the public-trust-and-confidence assessment: the significant and important role that perceptions of procedural fairness play in determining court users’ trust and confidence in the California courts.