ERIC Identifier: ED347490
Publication Date: 1992-12-00
Author: Maples, Mary Finn
Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on
Counseling and Personnel Services Ann Arbor MI.
Consulting with the Judiciary: A Challenging Opportunity for
the Counselor Educator. ERIC Digest.
Since 1985, I have had the privilege of serving as a part-time faculty member
for the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the training
organization for the National College of Juvenile Law, both based in Reno,
Nevada. Judges from throughout the country come to participate in continuing
legal education courses in addition to other topics related to their work on the
bench. Included among the students are judges from state supreme courts, county
district appeals courts and municipalities, along with juvenile and family
courts. In addition, courses have included social workers, probation officers,
pediatricians involved in legal issues, juvenile court masters, justices of the
peace and others involved in the court system.
The curricula that I have taught to these professionals include training them
to be faculty members for the Council, courses related to characteristics of
adult learners and principles of instructional design, and the use of
multi-media as teaching tools. They, in turn, teach legal education courses back
in their own jurisdictions, thereby extending the training and teaching
resources of the Council.
TEACHING AS A FORM OF CONSULTING
Lippitt (1975) suggested
that "consultation, like supervision, or love, is a general label for many
variations of relationships" (p. 42). Kirby (1985) defines a consultant as "a
catalytic agent in that the consultant sets into motion changes between persons
and/or among social forces without appreciable changes occurring in the person
of the consultant nor in the relationship role of the consultant to the social
system" (p. 3). In their education and training model, Hansen, Humes, and Meier
(1990) have expanded the definition by stating that "the consultant's role is
primarily that of an advisor, educator, or trainer, presenting information or
training that the consultees can use to better provide service for their agency
or clients. The information generally comes from the consultant's area of
expertise and, although it may relate to consultee problems, the consulting is
typically not focused on resolution of specific problems. This form of
consultation is called staff development or in-service training" (p. 7). This is
the clearest definition which describes consultation with the judiciary.
CONSULTANT QUALIFICATIONS
The role of the counselor
educator is uniquely appropriate to meet the needs of judges. The counselor
educator is trained in the areas of interpersonal communications, including
non-verbal communication; confronting personal values and attitudes as they
impact on professional decision-making; and facilitating clients' abilities to
express themselves; encouraging reluctant clients, family systems and stages and
tasks in human development. These are specific skills, techniques and areas of
knowledge that are overlooked in law school. While the majority of judges have
been attorneys, approximately 15-20% have not. In these cases, the counselor
educator can be even more valuable to the judiciary.
It is important to note that the consultant to the judiciary must be an
expert in the area that he or she is bringing to this audience. Working with
judges is not for the faint-hearted or the neophyte. The nature of the judiciary
is probing, cognitive, facially unexpressive, insightful yet often unforgiving
in the face of ignorance (of subject matter by experts). Members of the
judiciary often pose questions that the consultant may not be prepared to
answer. While the counselor educator who works with judges need not be a
nationally recognized expert, he or she must present credentials that spell out
the training and experience that the consultant brings to the process.
Establishing one's credibility as a consultant is the most crucial step in
effectively working with judges and other court personnel, particularly if the
consultant does not have a legal background. The consultant should clarify at
the beginning exactly what goals he or she intends to meet throughout the
process.
Providing written testimony by earlier clients is often helpful in becoming
initially involved as a consultant to the court system, especially if the
consultant's clients are known and respected by the judges. I have found that
"selling oneself" is probably more important when working with judges than when
working with most other groups of professionals or managers in business and
industry.
CONSULTATION THROUGH TRAINING--METHODS
The ability to
effectively utilize a variety of media is most appealing to judges. By training
and experience, they are familiar with only one teaching method, that overworked
method unique to law school--the lecture.
In our work with training judges to be trainers themselves, my colleague,
Gordon Zimmerman, and I, allow the judges to use the lecture method in only
20-25% of their teaching assignments. We work with the judges for one week each
year. The purpose of this program is to train the judges to serve as faculty for
the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ), the training
component for the National College of Juvenile and Family Law.
In teaching them how to teach, we use demonstrations, small group activities,
experiential opportunities, panel discussions, and role-playing experiences,
with very little lecturing. Our objectives contain cognitive, attitudinal and
behavioral components--as theirs must in their individual projects. Extensive
use of the camcorder/VCR, overhead projector, flip charts, chalk boards, slide
projectors and laser printers on word processors are also incorporated.
CONSULTING WITH THE JUDICIARY--A RECENT EXAMPLE
In 1990,
Merry Hofford, Director of the Family Violence Project for the National Council
of Juvenile and Family Court Judges submitted a unique project proposal to the
States Justice Institute, a funding agency for judicial education. The project
was entitled "The Crucial Nature of Values and Attitudes in Judicial
Decision-Making." Dr. Gordon Zimmerman, a colleague in the Department of Speech
Communication at UNR, and I, were contracted to conduct two invitational 3-day
training sessions designed to help judges at all levels to acknowledge their own
personal values and attitudes to the extent that these values and attitudes
impact on their decisions from the bench. Additionally, I was contracted to
write a curriculum guide to facilitate the ability of the judges to teach this
workshop in other areas of the country. Through the utilization of all of the
methods and media mentioned earlier in this digest, the judges were to present a
brief program to other participants which incorporated cognitive, attitudinal
and behavioral objectives and would demonstrate particularly the attitudinal
aspect in dealing with judges' values. In the evaluation of the workshop, the
participants made only two suggestions: (1) that the workshop should have been
extended to a full week as 3 days was not long enough; and (2) that the
objective that stated "judges will be able to 'acknowledge the impact' of values
and attitudes in their decision-making" should be changed to 'confront the
impact,' in order to strengthen that objective. Since that time, several of the
judge participants have replicated this workshop in their own and other
jurisdictions.
CONCLUSION
In one of the most recent texts on consulting
(Hansen et al., 1990) the authors write of consulting in business and industry,
in medical settings, with groups and with families. A group overlooked is the
judiciary, yet the opportunities and challenges available to counselor educators
are limitless. The training and experience of counselor educators is highly
respected by the judiciary. The knowledge base of counseling can contribute
significantly to the work of judges, particularly juvenile and family court
judges. I have worked since 1985 in a variety of areas requested as needed by
the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. It is a service that
is needed throughout the country, yet the resources within the ranks of
experienced counselor educators are as yet largely untapped.
REFERENCES
Hansen, J., Humes, B., Meier, S. (1990).
Consultation, concepts and practices. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Kirby, J. (1985). Consultation: Practice and practitioner. Muncie, IN:
Accelerated Development, Inc.
Lippitt, R. (1975). Dimensions of the consultant's job. In D. Dinkmeyer &
J. Carlson (Eds.), Consultation--A book of readings.
Maples, M. (1991). The crucial nature of values and attitudes in judicial
decision-making: A curriculum guide. Reno, NV: National Council of Juvenile and
Family Court Judges.
