The Michigan State Bar Foundation Trustees has unanimously selected Chad C. Schmucker for its 2013 Access to Justice Award.
The award, which will be presented Sept. 18 during the State Bar’s annual meeting in Lansing, honors an individual who has significantly advanced access to justice for the poor in Michigan.
Schmucker was named state court administrator by the Michigan Supreme Court in 2011.
He oversees administration of all the state’s trial courts, four regional SCAO offices and all SCAO divisions, including the Michigan Judicial Institute, Judicial Information Systems, Child Welfare Services, Friend of the Court Bureau, Office of Dispute Resolution, Statistical Research, and Trial Court Services.
The foundation’s award acknowledges Schmucker’s long public service as a judge and now as state court administrator in helping those with barriers to access to courts.
“Judge Schmucker represents the highest traditions of the legal profession through his dedication to ensuring access to justice for those in need,” said Foundation President Margaret Nichols.
The foundation particularly cited Schmucker’s leadership for increased and improved assistance to self-represented persons who are unable to afford a lawyer.
Foundatiaon Executive Director Linda Rexer said Schmucker’s work with the Solutions on Self-Help (SOS) Task Force and its successor program, the Michigan Legal Help (MLH) Program, “has benefited both our citizens and our courts by centralizing, and making more effective, assistance available for the self-represented in Michigan.”
Al Butzbaugh, foundation vice president, said Schmucker “made extraordinary contributions, including participating personally and involving other top SCAO staff in projects, assuring SCAO collaboration with MLH, supporting training for court staff regarding self-represented litigants, and using public speaking opportunities to emphasize the need for, and value of, pro se assistance.”
Schmucker was circuit judge in Jackson County from 1991 to 2011, serving as that court’s chief judge from 1996 to 2001 and 2004 to 2009.
He implemented that court’s family division and started the Jackson County SMILE (Start Making It Livable for Everyone) program for families undergoing divorce.
He also helped found the Jackson County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, which he chaired from 1996 to 2001. Since 2007 he also served as a judge of Jackson County’s “Recover Court,” a rehabilitative program for offenders with substance abuse problems, and he helped pioneer that court’s domestic violence, family dependency, and mental health court programs.
As a member of the Jackson County New Jail Project, Schmucker led a successful effort to reduce jail overcrowding.
Schmucker is a frequent lecturer for the Michigan Judicial Institute (MJI) and the Institute for Continuing Legal Education.
He has helped train new judges and made numerous presentations on domestic violence, family law, case and time management for judges, evidence-based sentencing, trial advocacy, alternative dispute resolution, and mental health courts.
Schmucker chaired the Michigan Judges Association’s Technology Committee and served on the Supreme Court’s Technology Advisory Group.
He has also served on the Michigan Department of Corrections Evidence-Based Sentencing Committee, the MJI Education Advisory Board, and the Criminal Justice Information Systems Advisory Board.
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