The importance of legal actor contributions has been highlighted in recent international guidelines proposed for the evaluation of court programs and is evident when reviewing the literature on good research design. However, attempts to measure legal actor contributions from an objective and therapeutic perspective as part of the ongoing therapeutic jurisprudence movement are scarce in the literature. To date, no court evaluation programs have included an objective measurement of legal actor contributions as a feature of their research design. However, several programs have attempted to measure this variable via self-report or the perceptions of other legal actors. This article highlights the necessity and usefulness for both the mainstreaming therapeutic jurisprudence movement and problem-solving courts to find a way to measure legal actor contributions effectively and objectively when evaluating court processes, impacts and outcomes. The proposed measurement tool could also function as a respectful mechanism to give feedback for magistrates wishing to embed therapeutic jurisprudence practices into their work in mainstream courts and could potentially be used in judicial training.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	court evaluation, judge contribution, law, legal actor contribution, mainstreaming TJ, psychology, research design, therapeutic court program, therapeutic jurisprudence
Research Division:	Law and Legal Studies
Research Group:	Law
Research Field:	Law not elsewhere classified
Objective Division:	Law, Politics and Community Services
Objective Group:	Other Law, Politics and Community Services
Objective Field:	Law, Politics and Community Services not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	Waterworth, R (Ms Rhondda Waterworth)
ID Code:	127285
Year Published:	2018
Deposited By:	Office of the Faculty of Law
Deposited On:	2018-07-20
Last Modified:	2018-12-07
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