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Criminal Defense Lawyers Milwaukee Argued That The Language Of Victim In Domestic Violence Courts Ought To Be Changed To Complainant

The Judicial Oversight Demonstration (JOD) initiative is jointly funded and managed by the Office on Violence Against Women and the National Institute of Justice. The JOD initiative, begun in 1999 in the communities of Dorchester, Massachusetts, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Washtenaw County, Michigan, are collaborative projects involving the court, prosecutor's office, victim service providers, batterer intervention programs, law enforcement, probation, and other community organizations The JOD initiative programs are based on three core strategies:

Uniform and consistent initial responses to domestic violence offenses; Coordinated victim advocacy and services; and
Strong offender accountability and oversight. The Urban Institute is currently evaluating the effectiveness of the JOD initiative While final reports of the comprehensive evaluation are not yet available, the Urban Institute evaluation offers several lessons that are applicable to domestic violence courts nationwide. 

Domestic violence courts often require a balancing act from judges. On the one hand, judges are committed to the independence of the judiciary and their role as interpreter of the law. On the other hand, they are committed to systemic changes in the courts designed to improve the administration of justice. To maintain a sense of fairness, the JOD sites have involved defense bar representatives as full network partners.

Domestic violence courts require dedicated and specialized staff. The JOD judges have all received specialized training on domestic violence (most received training sponsored by the National Judicial College, In addition to specialized judges, dedicated prosecutors and probation officers play integral roles in the JOD sites.

Domestic violence courts will have to find innovative ways to manage the court workload, particularly in the face of shrinking state budgets. Some of the reorganization efforts to streamline court processes at the Milwaukee JOD site include the co-location of courtrooms, which helps the schedules of attorneys and victim assistants; the hiring of a commissioner to handle preliminary matters; and scheduling review hearings for a time when deputy sheriffs could take noncomplying probationers into custody.

Preliminary findings from the Urban Institute suggest that the JOD initiative has helped create a greater commitment from judges on the issue of domestic violence, to the point that the culture of the court system has changed. Collective planning and ongoing meetings have improved coordination between agencies.  

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