The Rural Courts Committee is charged with:

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• Review the impact of state-mandated programs, court rules and legislation on rural courts.

• Review caseflow management in rural courts, including the relative benefits of state-operated programs versus locally-developed approaches.

• Consider court administration unique to rural courts, including the concerns of multi-county judicial districts and the sharing of judicial resources.

• Review the effect of canons of judicial conduct in rural courts.

• Consider the administration of recusal/removal process in rural courts.

• Consider enhancement of local/regional availability of resources in rural courts.

• Develop means to assist rural judges in dealing with isolation, visibility and stress inherent in rural judicial service.

• Develop minimum standards for rural courts for funding, staffing and court operations.

• Review means to improve jury administration in rural courts.

• Explore means to provide legal services for indigent litigants and affidavits for establishing indigency in rural courts.

• Establish a clearinghouse for tried and proven procedures for rural courts.

• Inquire into ways of representing the interests, improving the relationships in behalf of rural courts with local and state legislative and executive branches of local and state governments as well as the rest of the judicial branch.

• Address problems of conflicts between judges within judicial districts.

• Conduct an annual meeting at the Fall Judicial Conference with the DMCJA Rural Courts Committee.

• Submit written reports for the Spring and Fall Conferences.