This seminar will offer an intensive exploration of judicial decision-making by magistrates:  how those decisions are made, how they should be made according to the law, and how they often fall short of that ideal due to the impact of real life. Our focus will be on improving participants’ abilities to make legal decisions correctly, to identify and guard against improper influences, and how to use mindfulness to increase awareness and control of the mental processes involved in making these important decisions. 

Like all Judicial College seminars, this course will be highly interactive. Participants will have many opportunities to practice new skills, discuss new ideas, and evaluate current practices. A major course objective is that participants will privately conduct an individual exploration of their own decision-making approach, including identification of extra-judicial influences that impinge on the process. This three-day course is scheduled over a four-day period to allow time for this reflection as well as for completion of some out-of-class work. (These assignments will be relatively brief and not onerous.)