Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Cutting and pasting

This is the mission statement from a Justice of the Peace court out in west Texas.
Precinct 1 will provide timely, fair and cost effective disposition of all matters properly presented to this court.  We subscribe to these guiding principles and values: 
To serve the public and foster a friendly accessible environment, treating all individuals equally with dignity, respect, honesty and fairness. 
To operate with a pro-active, innovative and progressive approach to program development and implementation, remaining open to suggestions for improvement. 
To respect the interests of the taxpayers and our funding unit by continuously seeking greater efficiencies for improved service in coordination with elected officials, county departments and other units of government. 
To comply with all Trial Court Performance Standards promulgated by the Michigan Supreme Court. 
To encourage the spirit of teamwork among courts and service units to exemplify a unified Circuit Court. 
To serve as an example worthy of emulation by other courts in Texas and the United States. 
Yes, it sounds like something worthy to aspire to - except I can't think of why performance standards written by the Michigan Supreme Court have anything to do with how we practice in Texas. And I haven't the slightest idea what a "unified circuit court" is supposed to be considering that JP courts in Texas aren't courts of record and the judge isn't required to be a licensed attorney.

I'm guessing that someone found this up on some court website in Michigan and decided it sounded good and copied it to their court's website. I just hope the "justice" dispensed in that court isn't also a cut-and-paste job.

You just can't make this stuff up.

2 comments:

Kiatta said...

And most JPS treat search warrants the same way. Sign with out reading.

Lee said...

The vocabulary word for that is called plagiarism which usually results in a pink slip for students caught doing so....but it is ok for the courts.

Can you really blame students for irresponsible behavior given the examples that adults set today?