The taskforce mission of the Missouri Commission on Civil Justice Reform is expected to come to fruition through 2021, according to a civil justice reform advocate with the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS).
“I have worked with Missouri and their civil justice reform efforts over the last three to four years and partnered with them to provide some expertise and to develop a set of recommendations for civil justice reform, which is separate from their legislative efforts,” IAALS senior director Brittany K.T. Kauffman said.
The Missouri Commission on Civil Justice Reform was created by the state Supreme Court in 2017 and is co-chaired by Judge Gary Witt and Chief Judge Cynthia Martin, both of whom are appellate judges at the Western Division Court of Appeals.
“We're actually working on a set of pattern discoveries for business interruption cases resulting from the pandemic,” Kauffman told the St. Louis Record. “There are not many States around the country who picked this up and adopted it but Utah is one pioneer and Missouri is at the forefront in terms of taking on this approach.”
The Commission was created after the Missouri Supreme Court issued an order on June 28, 2017, charging it with improving how the courts serve citizens in terms of efficiency, cost, and convenience.
“The commission shall identify cultural, financial, procedural, and operational barriers to the fair, affordable, and prompt resolution of civil disputes in the state court civil justice system, excluding family, juvenile, probate, and post-conviction matters,” the order states.
Below are three of the Commission's priorities that are expected to unfold in Missouri courts in 2021.
Standardization of pattern discovery
“The commission has been discussing how to reduce the cost and delay of litigation in Missouri and pattern discovery is just one way to focus the issues in a case early on and to be more clear about what information is to be shared by both sides,” Kauffman said in an interview.
As previously reported in the St. Louis Record, more than 15,000 jobs a year are lost because of lawsuit abuse and cost the city’s economy up to $1 billion.
“The longer a case goes on, the more discovery there is and the more impact there is for both sides,” Kauffman added. “The more we can streamline discovery, the better and that has been a focus of civil justice reform over the last 10 to 15 years, which is to streamline discovery for both small and large cases.”
Improve services provided to self-represented litigants
While courts have traditionally relied on foot traffic into the courthouse to speak with self-represented litigants, providing pro-se services online is part of the Commission’s recommendations.
“There are a lot of challenges for self-represented litigants in the court system,” Kauffman said. “The pandemic just further heightens the need for civil justice reform to ensure that we have access to justice for high volume cases and for self-represented litigants.”
Increase access to remote hearings and remote appearances
Missouri is among the states that have been participating in the Show-Me Courts pilot project, which aims to connect local court records online, according to media reports.
However, COVID-19 has acted as a catalyst to accelerate the efforts.
“Over the last now nine months, our court system has had to adapt to this new world, which includes remote hearings and remote appearances and doing business in a way that meets litigants where they are at and not always in the courthouse,” Kauffman said. “We recognize that the court system is a service and we need to meet people where they are and in this pandemic, we have had to shift and adapt very quickly to providing remote appearances, remote hearings and thinking of new ways to meet the needs."