Applicants Needed for Superior Court Regional Anti-Bias Subcommittee

The Anti Bias Committee Subcommittee was established to support the Court’s newly-formed Anti-Bias Committee (Committee), which consists of  judicial officers and select members of court administration. 

However, nowhere are there details of time of service, compensation, disqualification parameters (citizenship, previous arrest, conflict of interest, elected officials). Nor the scope of authority and or influence given the committee.

The goal is for court users’ interactions with the justice system, whether in courtrooms or Clerk’s Offices, to be fair and impartial and in compliance with Standard 10.20 of the Standards of Judicial Administration.

• Identifying and addressing concerns of bias in the judicial system
• Assisting in the design and implementation of 
  • Educational programs
  • Policies to promote fairness and impartiality 

 The fair and impartiality is regardless of

 Age, religion, ancestry, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, gender, gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, military or veteran status, physical or mental disability, socioeconomic status, and any other classification protected by federal or state law.

However, within the details of Standard 10.20 is an Advisory Committee Comment which address concerns such as:

• Duplicative and conflicting complaint procedures
• Using informal complaint procedures to resolve incidents that do not warrant formal discipline
  • It is often difficult to determine at the outset if a complaint is disciplinary in nature or can be ameliorated by education
    • Due process concerns were raised that local committees were not necessarily resourced to make these determinations
    • And may not have had the expertise to investigate and resolve these complaints. 
• Having local committees oversee complaints against judicial officers and court employees created privacy and confidentiality concerns for both complainants and respondents
  • Any inquiry by a local bias committee would be known and resolved by a group of local attorneys, judicial officers, and other committee members who would necessarily need to know the particular facts of the complaint, thereby significantly expanding the number of local individuals who were aware of the existence or details of the complaint.
• Ethical concerns were also raised for judicial officers who were members of the local bias committees because judicial officers who become aware of complaints against other judicial officers may have ethical obligations that require them to take appropriate corrective action, which may include reporting the information to the presiding judge or justice or the Commission on Judicial Performance. 
• Would local bias committee complaint procedures conflict with existing personnel policies and labor relations agreements if the local committee attempted to resolve complaints against court employees outside of the procedures outlined in these policy documents.

This standard does not prevent courts and local or regional bias committees from choosing to create informal complaint resolution procedures. Some local bias committees have established effective informal complaint resolution procedures for resolving complaints against judicial officers, and each local court and local or regional bias committee should work to find solutions that work best for that local community. If so, they should fully consider how best to address the above concerns.

Court Stakeholders eligible to apply include:

• Court users
• Court staff
• Attorneys
• Justice partners 

 Interested court users, members of the legal community and court staff are encouraged to apply by filling out this application. Applications must be submitted no later than 5 p.m. on February 28 to be considered.

The application requires a 200 word maximum answer to this:

Why do you want to serve in the Regional/Local Anti-Bias Subcommittee?  

Press Releases: 

 LASCSeeksApplicantstoJoinAnti-BiasSubcommittee.pdf  

LIBSVCExecutiveSupport-259-CourtRules_Proposed_2023-09-13.pdf. (windows.net)

Racial Equity Strategic Plan – Los Angeles County (lacounty.gov)

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