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Court
Community Communication
Curriculum
Guidelines Summary
What
Court Leaders Need to Know and Be Able to Do
The Court Community Communication
Competency includes six areas of competency
 Curriculum
Guidelines
Purpose
and Communication Fundamentals
Understandable
Courts Community
Outreach Public
Information The
Media and Media Relations Leadership
and Program Management
Purpose
and Communication Fundamentals
Effective
court executive leadership teams develop and improve communication
channels between the courts and the public to advance court purposes and
responsibilities. They
engender accurate understandings and positive perceptions about the
courts. If this goal is
accomplished, public trust and confidence will improve and, very
importantly, court operations will improve.
To
achieve this, court leaders must master six communication fundamentals
essential to effective communication -- both verbally and in writing.
The six fundamentals that enable court leaders to construct and
carry out effective court community communication are: 1) positive
messages, 2) credibility, 3) honesty, 4) accessibility, 5) openness, and
6) understandability.
Understandable
Courts
Although
most of the population never has personal contact with the court system,
most, but not all, national and state surveys indicate that more citizens
who have been to court have more negative opinions of courts and the
judicial process than those who have not actually been to court as
litigants, witnesses, or jurors.
Courts
have not historically been user-friendly and are still too often cloaked
in mystery for the average person. Unduly
complicated courts confound the public.
Mysterious court processes and terminology make courts difficult to
understand and to access, use, and navigate.
Court
leaders must assess their courts and ensure that processes are
understandable and useable for the public from the self-represented to
witnesses and jurors, to court watchers, and to represented parties.
Beyond common courtesy and good customer service, tools include
technology and modern multimedia techniques to make the courts more
understandable, accessible, and easy to use.
With the growth of self-represented litigants, particularly, but
not exclusively, in family law matters, these tools help both litigants
and the court.
Community
Outreach
Community
outreach allows court leaders to understand the needs and perceptions of
the communities they serve. Courts
need community outreach programs to learn how courts can better serve
their communities and to reach distinct segments of the public.
Public input is vital to effective community outreach. Communication must be two-way.
Good
community outreach educates the public and informs the court about
community concerns and insights
into how the court can be improved.
It takes both good teaching and listening skills to make community
outreach programming into the two-way communications’ street that it
must be.
Public
Information
Court
public information is the amalgamation of various communication skills
such as media relations, public relations, legislative relations, and
overall community education. This
is more than “media relations.” Courts
must formulate and deliver positive information about courts.
Court
leaders, who are successful communicators with various public audiences,
have the ability to assess what information needs to be conveyed to what
specific audience(s) and how it can be delivered.
This information may take a general public education format or be
tailored to advance legislative and other purposes.
Effective
public information managers are masters at multi-tasking and able to
communicate with diverse audiences. They
respond to crises and plan and communicate proactively.
The
Media and Media Relations
Court
leaders must understand the news media and have productive relationships
with reporters, editors, and news officials.
They must respond appropriately to news inquires, generate
constructive news coverage, use the media as an educational tool, and
communicate with and without reporters through the print and broadcast
media.
Effective
court leaders neither fear the media nor take a reactive posture.
Instead, they plan and are skilled and confident in their media
relation’s abilities. They
develop and effectuate proactive media relations plans.
Court messages must be informative, accurate, and consistent, as
well as positive.
Leadership
and Program Management
Effective
court community communications is much more likely in a well-managed than
a poorly managed or mediocre court. When
affordable in large courts, public information professionals are
invaluable. However, court
leaders or staff they assign who have other responsibilities must lead,
oversee, and deliver community communication in most jurisdictions.
Those in charge ensure that their own and others roles as
spokespersons for the court are clearly defined.
Within a cohesive, well-managed court, court leaders aided by staff
assess court community communication needs and prioritize and organize
programs to meet general and specific needs.
Needs include information related to domestic violence, divorce,
and landlord tenant cases.
Court
executive leadership teams evaluate court community communication against
clear objectives. With the
help of court staff, other justice system leaders, and the public, they
determine if their messages are reaching the desired audiences.
Changes to the message and who delivers it are made when necessary.
click on
each of the six Curriculum Guidelines to see the associated Knowledge,
Skills and Abilities:
Purpose
and Communication Fundamentals
Understandable
Courts Community
Outreach Public
Information The
Media and Media Relations Leadership
and Program Management
Court
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