22 September 2016

Patricia Breckenridge, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri, 

delivered the following address during the opening luncheon of the joint annual meeting of

The Missouri Bar and the Judicial Conference of Missouri September 22, 2016, in Lake Ozark.

Good afternoon. Thank you for being here, and for all you do on behalf of our profession.

At this luncheon a year ago, I challenged us to stand together to ensure we are worthy of the public’s trust and confidence. Today that speech feels like it was a very long time ago. Some days times flies; other days are agonizingly slow … like dog years.

Last year, I was idealistic. I talked about the challenges we were facing in our Missouri courts, particularly those raised by the Department of Justice. I encouraged you to lead and influence the culture of our profession. I continue to steadfastly believe we each can improve our courts and legal community.

While we can make a difference individually, our actions to create change are much more powerful when we work together. We accomplish much more when we lead together.

As Vince Lombardi said, “Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”

Boy, have I learned a lot over the last year. In my role as chief justice, I am invited to a lot of meetings. And because of the issues facing Missouri courts, there is no question I was invited to some national meetings because of our notoriety. It would have been easy to stay home rather than go and listen to the criticisms. But I went because I care. And I learned leadership means you show up, take ownership of a problem, and find solutions.

Over the last year, many of you have done the same. Attorneys, judges, court staff, and members of the community have shown how deeply you care about our courts. You have led. You didn’t just talk about how to improve our courts. You rolled up your sleeves and spent days, weeks, months devising solutions to challenges. You joined together to lead – because it is the right thing to do.

I want to publicly thank my colleagues on the Supreme Court for their leadership. They have worked tirelessly for months. They’ve formulated broad policies and scrutinized small but important details. They have undertaken to make changes themselves but, more importantly, they have brought together smart and passionate people and asked them to turn challenges into opportunities.

For example, the Court appointed a standing committee responsible for practices and procedures in municipal divisions. Committee members have done yeoman’s work since its creation. Members are charged with questioning all aspects of municipal operations and turning the recommendations for reforms into tangible change.

We know a major obstacle to improving municipal operations is the lack of case management software. So the development of new software is the highest priority of the Missouri Court Automation Committee. The new software will give the public access to cases from their mobile devices and allow municipal divisions to text notices of hearing and payment dates; automate the determination of indigency; and refer defendants to payment or community service plans without their appearance in court.

I am excited to announce that we were awarded a $500,000 grant from the Department of Justice to aid this project. This software will have long-term benefits for the entire judiciary because it will be used in the development of future software for associate and circuit divisions. We thank the Missouri Court Automation Committee for taking ownership of the challenge and turning it into an opportunity for the future.   

The importance of showing up and taking ownership isn’t the only lesson I learned about leadership in the past 12 months. I’ve also learned a leader has to stay the course. That’s easy to do on the good days, but not so easy on the bad.

Despite all our accomplishments, the criticism continues. The auditor has reviewed several municipal divisions across the state, and her reports indicate there is still significant room for improvement.  Newspaper headlines say it is business as usual – courts violate people’s rights, and there is disparity for those who are poor, or persons of color, or both. Community leaders tell me they believe we are just stalling until activists, media, and national observers focus elsewhere.

Criticism is helpful, even necessary, if we are going to improve. I’ll admit, the criticism made me question what was really happening in our courts. So I showed up, uninvited … unannounced, to see for myself. And what did I learn?  A lot.

• A voice message for one municipal division said the court was open from 9 to 4, five days a week. But the sign on the door said it closes every day at 1 – and has for the last two years.
• Some courts tell children they are not welcome in the courtroom, despite the constitution and a not-so-gentle reminder from the presiding judge that courts are to be open to the public of all ages.
• In one municipality, court clerks were wearing jackets with “police department” logos, visually illustrating the lack of separation of the executive branch police from the judicial branch court.
• Finally, in one court the prosecuting attorney was actually seated behind the bench, with the judge, during court proceedings.

I experienced first-hand what citizens in our state must encounter every day. I felt frustrated and angry.

Was it disheartening to see that there are still courts operating contrary to the law?  Absolutely. Is it a good thing that I turn to chocolate rather than strong drink at such times?  Yes. So what are we to do?  Give up?  Absolutely not.

There have been positive changes in our municipal divisions.

• Parties are being notified of their rights and treated respectfully.
• People are able to pay their fines and costs online rather than having to come to court.
• There is improved access to information and the adoption of a uniform fine schedule that eliminates exorbitant and unauthorized fines and costs previously assessed in some cities.
• And tens of thousands of warrants have been recalled and cancelled.

There is more. Just this week, the Supreme Court adopted a form for determining indigency and mandatory standards for municipal divisions. These are both available on the Missouri Courts website. The mandatory standards make clear how municipal divisions must operate. For example, the standards recognize the constitutional requirement that, pending trial, individuals can be incarcerated only when they pose a danger to the community or a flight risk. These standards also make clear that a party’s ability to pay must be determined when collecting fines and costs. A party can be put in jail for failure to pay fines and costs only after a court has found the party had the ability to pay and willfully failed to do so. 

The standards are extensive and will guide the constitutionally required supervision by the presiding judge of each circuit and the Supreme Court. I expect some standards may be unpopular. Often, tough things are. People don’t like change.

The Court recognizes this supervision poses a special challenge in St. Louis County, which had nearly 80 municipal divisions as of last year. In an effort to help, we will hire two municipal court monitors to assist the presiding judge in that county.

Nine municipalities in north St. Louis County are currently consolidating their municipal divisions. The Missouri Court Automation Committee and state courts administrator’s office are helping to facilitate this consolidation. By reducing costs, sharing operations, as well as clerical and judicial personnel, we hope to reduce the incentive to use municipal divisions as revenue generators rather than to ensure public safety.

We should all be proud of what we have accomplished. The kind of leadership people have shown has been remarkable. For this I am truly thankful.

The progress we have made proves we can change. We can affect meaningful improvement. We can lead. And not just in our municipal divisions.

During the last year, we have recognized the challenges surrounding fairness and equity, especially as it applies to race and poverty, are important in all divisions of our courts. As a result, we took the opportunity to examine other court practices.

The Supreme Court’s commission on racial and ethnic fairness was given the daunting task of identifying and addressing disparity in the practice of law and the judicial system. More than 50 individuals from across the state are contributing time and resources to recommend changes to promote fairness in our legal profession and our courts. We expect its interim report to recommend changes to the collection of attorney enrollment data as it relates to race, as well as training in cultural competency, diversity, inclusion, and implicit bias for all judges and attorneys. In fact, implicit bias training has already been provided this year to our judges and juvenile officers. Circuit and municipal clerks will be provided training by the end of the year. Commission members have risen to the challenge, and we thank them for their passion and commitment. They have led.

I am also pleased to announce that Missouri will host the 2017 annual meeting of the National Consortium for Racial and Ethnic Fairness from May 15 through 17 in St. Louis. The annual meeting is open to all attorneys and judges. We invite you to attend and help us show the nation’s court leaders that Missourians are committed to racial and ethnic fairness in our courts.

We are also examining issues that relate to pretrial incarceration of defendants simply because they are poor – not because they are a danger to the community or a flight risk. New research shows there are negative life consequences for individuals after three days of incarceration. These consequences are irreversible after thirty days. And studies have also shown that many innocent persons plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of time served simply because they couldn’t post bond. With the help of the Arnold Foundation, an objective tool has been developed and validated for Missouri that will give judges a more accurate way to predict an individual’s risk of failing to appear or committing additional offenses.

In other areas, we have proven we can lead and have – we have completed our implementation of electronic filing. As of June, this feature functions statewide. The Supreme Court has created a committee to focus exclusively on domestic violence and human trafficking issues, and our Joint Task Force on the Future of the Profession urges us to continually evaluate all areas of practice to ensure we remain relevant and best serve the public.

Perhaps every chief justice would tell you that, in any given year, much has been done, and much remains to be done. While that is true, I have learned it is not enough to direct from the top. Actually, it won’t work.  The only way change happens is through hard work by people who are willing to change the status quo … people who are willing to lead. You will make this happen. Every one of us is a leader.

Leadership is part of the service we lawyers provide every day. We serve, in return for the privilege of being lawyers. We must use our unique talents and knowledge for good. Examples of leadership abound in this room – from our senior counselors to our young lawyers’ leadership academy.

At the Supreme Court, we have been blessed to have an amazing leader in our longtime counsel and clerk, Bill Thompson, who retires at the end of the year. No one can fill his shoes.

He embodies – on a daily basis – the ideals of civility and professionalism. He leads by example, always conducting himself in a learned, disciplined, and honorable manner. For nearly four decades, he has been the trusted legal advisor to more than 30 Supreme Court judges and commissioners, including 19 chief justices and approximately 400 law clerks. Indeed, scores of judges and lawyers from around the state regularly seek Bill’s advice and counsel.

When he began there was no such thing as a presiding judge or an associate circuit judge. In fact, there is only one Missouri judge now on the bench who began serving before Bill – Judge Randall Jackson from Buchanan County. Legend has it Bill was left in a basket on the front steps of the Supreme Court and raised in the library. Because he has been at the Court longer than any of us, no one is sure whether it’s fact or fiction.

Whether you recognize it or not, Bill has had a greater impact on the law in the state of Missouri than almost any other Missourian. His legacy reaches far beyond the Supreme Court. His research and drafting skills were instrumental in realigning and reorganizing the judicial branch of government in the late 1970s. He has staffed the Court’s substantive committees for decades, utilizing those same research, drafting and counseling skills. His devotion to public service and the law has enhanced the administration of justice in this state more than anyone might know.

As a true leader, Bill works behind the scenes and takes far less than his share of the credit for our successes. For nearly 40 years, Bill has shown up, taken ownership and devised solutions. He has stayed the course in good and bad times.

 My colleagues and I regularly wander down to Bill’s office to talk through a difficult case or a controversial issue. He expects and accepts that we often will not agree. And when we don’t, Bill still helps us make our positions legally sound and persuasive. At times he aids the majority and the dissent, but we don’t question that because we don’t question the integrity of Bill Thompson.

Bill, you will be missed tremendously – especially by the seven judges of the Court. Please join me in thanking Bill for his service to the courts, the Bar, and the state of Missouri.

And so now I end where I began, today and last year – by asking that we all take action to ensure that the courts and the legal profession truly are worthy of the public’s trust and confidence. Leading, making necessary changes, requires courage and perseverance.

As the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.”

Thank you for all you have done and will do to hold our courts to the highest standards.