Judicial Outreach Liaison Program (JOL)

Overview

Over the past several years, the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) has provided assistance to improve the delivery of impaired driving and other traffic safety education to the judiciary through the use of National Judicial Fellows and Regional Judicial Outreach Liaisons (JOLs) to promote and provide judicial education about DWI Courts, ignition interlock devices and evidence based and promising court, sentencing and supervision practices regarding impaired driving and other traffic offenses. More recently, this JOL model has been offered in individual States and found to be especially useful at that level. State JOLs are given the ability to establish this same sort of peer-to-peer relationships among judges that share more common issues, relating to State law, State constitutions and State court and criminal justice systems. These positions are based on the Regional JOL model. The TN JOL has been in place for the last three fiscal years. Currently the State of Tennessee has 151 General Sessions Judges, 234 Municipal Judges and 33 Criminal Court judges. The long-range goal of this position is to provide information to Judges at all levels, Judicial Commissioners, Clerks and Magistrates concerning best practices in the area of traffic safety. Such practices include instruction regarding the use of treatment courts, effective sentencing procedures, Fourth Amendment issues, new statutes and case law reviews. The ultimate goal is to help members of the Judiciary gain quick and helpful access to information about best practices, which will help reduce the number of drug and alcohol crashes, distracted driving crashes and speed related crashes resulting in decreased injuries and fatalities in Tennessee.