Question of Ethics: A Conversation on Courts and Ethics – Summer 2022 Edition of the Court Manager
Brought to You in Cooperation with NACM
NACM has made a commitment to the values of providing equal justice regardless of race, gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation or identity, disability, or social economic status. What is the court’s ethical obligation, particularly when it comes to implementing court operations? This episode was a recorded conversation held immediately after the Ethics Subcommittees’ Conference Call held on March 24, 2022.
The questions the group explored include:
- Do courts have an ethical obligation to implement policies and procedures that ensure the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are applied to court processes?
- Can a court apply diversity, equity, and inclusion to assessing fines, costs, and fees? if so, how does one go about doing that?
The ethical Canons from the NACM Model Code for Court Professionals referenced during the conversation include:
Canon 1.1: Performing Court Duties
A court professional faithfully carries out all appropriately assigned duties, striving at all times to perform the work diligently, efficiently, equitably, thoroughly, courteously, honestly, openly, and within the scope of the court professional’s authority.
Canon 1.3: Fairness
The court professional makes the court accessible and conducts his or her work without bias or prejudice.
Canon 1.4 Respect for Others
A court professional treats litigants, co-workers, and all others interacting with the court with dignity, respect, and courtesy.
Listen to the Summer 2022 A Question of Ethics Conversation on your way to or from work. In your car or on the bus. 29 Minutes 4 Seconds
Watch the Summer 2022 Edition of A Question of Ethics Conversation 29 Minutes 59 Seconds
Be Sure to Take Our Survey Question
Access the link to the survey question We will periodically post the survey results here on the CourtLeader.
Join the Conversation
Email us at ethics@nacmnet.org
Today’s Moderator
Courtney Whiteside is passionately dedicated to providing the citizens of Missouri with a fair and unbiased judiciary through education and collaboration with the other branches of government, our community and national partners and providing our judicial staff with the tools to be successful in this fast-paced environment. Her journey in the judiciary started in 2012 in her hometown of St. Charles, Missouri as a court clerk then taking her to Jefferson City to work with the Office of State Courts Administrator and on to the Missouri Supreme Court to serve as the state’s municipal division courts monitor.
Today Courtney is the Director of the St. Louis County Municipal Division where she continues to pursue providing educational opportunities to municipal divisions and clerks through various committees and educational groups of the state while promoting cultural and procedural reform progression. It is her great honor to partner with judicial partners in Missouri and across the nation.
Court Leader 