The Chief Justice issued Administrative Order AOSC12-28 on July 2, 2012, relating to the Standing Committee on Fairness and Diversity. The committee was established to help advance the State Courts System’s efforts to eliminate from court operations bias that is based on race, gender, ethnicity, age, disability, financial status, or any characteristic that is without legal relevance.

Following are previous Florida committee reports, previous Florida Bar studies and national studies and articles on the subject of fairness and diversity. (Opening the following files requires that you have Adobe Acrobat loaded on your computer. Some of the files are large, so allow adequate download time.)

New Work products of the Standing Committee

• Recognizing and Eliminating Bias from Court Operations
• Supreme Court Standing Committee on Fairness and Diversity Compilation of Court-Community Relations Activities
• Promoting and Ensuring the Diversity of Judicial Staff Attorneys and Law Clerks within the Florida State Courts System
• Law Clerk Resume Repository Staff attorney and law clerk applicants - Post resumes here)

Previous Florida Committee Reports

• Gender Bias Study Commission (Executive Summary)
• Gender Bias – Then And Now Continuing Challenges In The Legal System
• Guardianship Monitoring (2003)
• Florida Supreme Court Committee On Court-Related Needs Of The Elderly And Persons With Disabilities Action Plan
• Florida Statewide Public Opinion Survey (Executive Summary)
• Judicial Administration Of The Baker Act And Its Effect On Florida’s Elders (Executive Summary)
• Jury Accessibility For Older Persons And Persons With Disabilities In Florida
• “Where The Injured Fly For Justice” Report And Recommendations Of The Florida Supreme Court Racial And Ethnic Bias Study Commission (1990)
• “Where The Injured Fly For Justice” Report And Recommendations Of The Florida Supreme Court Racial And Ethnic Bias Study Commission (1991)
• “Where The Injured Fly For Justice” Report And Recommendations Of The Florida Supreme Court Racial And Ethnic Bias Study Commission
  (Ten-year Retrospect)

Previous Bar Studies

• Diversity In The Legal Profession (The Florida Bar, for questions, contact mjohnson@flabar.org)
• Perceptions Of Lawyers: The Client’s View (The Florida Bar, for questions, contact mjohnson@flabar.org)

National Studies and Articles

• Establishing And Operating A Task Force Or Commission On Racial And Ethnic Bias In The Courts (Copyright 1995 National Center for State Courts, Williamsburg, Va. Used with permission.)
• How Recent Court Users View The State Courts: Perceptions Of Whites, African-Americans, And Latinos (Copyrighted National Center for State Courts, Williamsburg, Va. Used with permission.)
• How The Public Views The State Courts (A 1999 National Study) (Copyright 1999 National Center for State Courts, Williamsburg, Va. Used with permission.)
• Leadership Development Conference: Courts for the 21st Century (Upstate Conference) Report - Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission On Minorities January 2005.