COSCA White Papers

As I pointed out in 2010, my national group, the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA) issues a policy paper each year, known to many as the "COSCA White Paper." Working on racial disproportionality in child welfare and other systems has sensitized us to the freighted significance of such terminology. We now refer to it as a Policy Paper, for that is what we hope the Policy & Liaison committee will produce, a statement of provocative and helpful policy guidance for the leaders of the states' court systems. As the current chair of that committee, I hope to release the newest paper, "Courts Are Not Revenue Centers," in the very near future.  In the meantime I thought it would be helpful to share a compilation of the last decade-plus worth of very good papers:

Position Paper on Problem-Solving Courts (1999)

Self-Represented Litigation (2000)

Access to Court Records (2000)

State Courts' Responsibility to Address Issues of Racial and Ethnic Fairness (2001)

Effective Judicial Governance and Accountability (2001)

Court Leadership in Justice Information Sharing (2002)

Effective Management of Family Law Cases (2002)

State Judicial Branch Budgets in Times of Fiscal Crisis (2003)

Safety and Accountability: State Courts and Domestic Violence (2004)

The Emergence of E-Everything (2005)

Emergency Preparedness in the State Courts (2006)

White Paper on Court Interpretation: Fundamental to Access to Justice (2007)

Promoting a Culture of Accountability and Transparency: Court System Performance Measures (2008)

Digital Recording: Changing Times for Making the Record" (2009)

The Demographic Imperative: Guardianships and Conservatorships (2010)