By Steve Hanke
How do you prepare for a job that no one can prepare for? This isn’t meant to be a rhetorical question. As a new judge, I am often asked what orientation looks like for the position. There is frankly an enormous amount to learn about being a judge that can only be learned through the actual practice of judicial duties.
Fortunately, Minnesota has an exceptionally strong judicial education program. The Minnesota Judicial Branch and the 6th Judicial District — consisting of Cook, Lake, St. Louis (Duluth, Hibbing, and Virginia), and Carlton counties — provide initial and ongoing training for judges. What does that look like?
Variety is the spice of judicial life. In our district, your judges preside over all types of cases. There are hundreds of types of cases. In larger Minnesota counties, like Hennepin and Ramsey, judges are assigned to a particular case rotation for a few years at a time. For example, a new Hennepin County judge may preside exclusively over misdemeanor criminal cases for the first three years. Instead of one type of case every three years, I often preside over three different types of cases in one day.
There are continuing judicial-education requirements. Judges are required to complete 45 hours of approved continuing judicial-education coursework every three years. At least three of those hours of coursework must be diversity- and inclusion-related. We complete this coursework at state and national judicial conferences and can also attend continuing legal-education courses for attorneys. These conferences include the Children’s Justice Initiative, Treatment Court Conference, Mental Health Court Conference, Digital Evidence for Judges, Family Law Institute, Rural Justice Initiative, and National Judicial Institute on Domestic Child Sex Trafficking.
New judges, within their first year on the bench, are also required to complete a weeklong orientation program called the Honorable Tammi A. Fredrickson New Judge Orientation Program, named in honor of Judge Tammi Fredrickson’s distinguished career on the 10th Judicial District Bench in Anoka County. She had a passion for contributing to judicial education in the Minnesota Judicial Branch, and the program named for her provides newly appointed and elected judges with fundamental knowledge and insight on a variety of case-related topics, court-management skills, and judicial decorum and demeanor best practices in a confidential cohort learning environment. Experienced faculty judges from across the Minnesota Judicial Branch share their expertise and perspectives with participants and raise awareness of how they are a part of something greater than themselves and their own counties.
Additionally, judges in Minnesota, during each full term of office, are required to tour at least one correctional facility to which they sentence individuals. There are state correctional facilities in Moose Lake, Rush City, Togo, Lino Lakes, Stillwater, Shakopee, St. Cloud, Oak Park Heights, Red Wing, and Faribault. It is important for judges to visit these facilities so they understand the conditions that await the people they incarcerate.
Our district has a formal judicial mentorship program, too. Mentor judges provide constructive feedback, offer advice, and impart their wisdom to newer judges.
Judges learn by doing, of course, since, again, an enormous amount to learn about being a judge can only be learned through the actual practice of judicial duties. Judges participate in state and national judicial trial skills courses in which they preside over mock live hearings and mock trials. We volunteer to judge the Minnesota High School Mock Trial Program and college and law school mock trial programs. We also observe each other’s hearings and provide feedback.
We want to do a good job. We want to continue to improve. Honestly, sometimes that means having the humility to admit when we don’t understand. We are in a profession where getting better means learning.
Steve Hanke is a 6th Judicial District judge in the Lake County Courthouse in Two Harbors and Cook County Courthouse in Grand Marais.