National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Grant for Enhancing Impaired Driving Case Adjudication

The purpose of the Cooperative Agreement will be to improve the adjudication of impaired driving cases. To achieve this purpose, the objectives are to:

·develop evidence-based techniques and programs to enhance the abilities of hearing officers, magistrates, and judges to more effectively adjudicate impaired driving cases at the federal, state and local level;

·maintain the Judicial Fellowship program that sponsors up to two judges to develop and disseminate judicial programs and resources to State and local courts, including tribal traffic courts that strengthen judicial practices in the area of impaired driving;

·maintain the Judicial Outreach Liaison (JOL) program, which works with Regional, State, and local judicial officers to promote greater understanding and collaboration and promotes effective, evidenced based courtroom and sentencing practices, including DWI Courts and Ignition Interlock programs; and

·assess the effectiveness of the activities and overall project.

·develop traffic safety-oriented judicial education programs related to alcohol and drug impairment traffic safety issues, including a course on fair and equitable adjudication.

Performance goals and indicators of success will include expansion of the Judicial Outreach Program on both the State and Regional levels, the number of outreach events including, webinars, educational courses, technical assistance opportunities, positive evaluations from said programs, and relationship building with other judicial entities to include State Administrative Offices of the Courts, National and state judicial education entities and NHTSA regional staff. Successfully funded past projects have included support of NHTSA’s outreach to and partnerships with State judiciaries. In past efforts, entities have undertaken several initiatives: promoted traffic safety panels at their annual and mid-year meeting; developed, promoted and taught a judicial traffic safety program on both the national and state levels; developed the Judicial Outreach Liaison (JOL) program; and developed the Judicial Fellowship program. These initiatives established communications and educational opportunities for Judges in a variety of courts on many traffic safety issues.