New Chief Justice makes stop in Yuma
Arizona’s new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Hon. Robert M. Brutinel was in Yuma on Thursday to meet with judicial officials and other court employees about his fiveyear strategic agenda for Arizona’s courts, “Justice for the Future: Planning for Excellence.”
Brutinel, who was sworn in as the 25th Arizona Chief Justice in a ceremony in June, will be visiting all 15 counties in Arizona as part of a statewide tour introducing his plan, which he says will serve as the blueprint for the court’s future during his five-year term.
Speaking with the media prior to his meeting, which was held inside the Jury Assembly Room at the Yuma Justice Center, Brutinel said he wanted to not only visit with Yuma’s judicial branch employees to talk about the initiatives he hopes to accomplish, but to also spend time hearing from them about the needs of their courts.
“I wanted to travel around the state to meet with individual judges, to see individual courts, and to have an opportunity to listen to the community to hear about what the issues are and what we are doing right, and what we are not doing right,” Brutinel said. “I also wanted to know how we as the Administrative Office of the Courts and the Supreme Court could better serve the residents of Yuma County.”
He explained that the 20page document will serve as way to determine how the courts need to improve, to set goals for improvement and to track the course for accomplishing those goals.
Developed with statewide input from court staff, Brutinel’s agenda contains five primary goals: promoting access to justice; protecting children, families, and communities; promoting judicial branch excellence and innovation;
enhancing professionalism within Arizona’s courts; and promoting public trust and confidence.
Of those, Brutinel says he considers promoting access to justice the most important. “We want to find ways for people to use the court system, to make it as efficient and inexpensive as possible so that people can resolve their disputes in a timely fashion, and get done what they need to get done in a way that works for them,” Brutinel said.
Each goal includes multiple projects, milestones, and objectives. The strategic agenda is an evolving document, subject to new and modified initiatives as needs arise and as goals are achieved over time.
The strategic agenda, can be viewed by going to https://www.azcourts. gov/Portals/0/Communications/JusticeForTheFuture.pdf.
James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 5396854. Find him on Facebook at www. Facebook.com/YSJamesGilbert or on Twitter @YSJamesGilbert.