The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges is a 70-year-old organization comprised of members from every state in the country. Our mission is to ensure that each judge who handles juvenile or family matters has the education, training and technical assistance to assist families when they are most in need.

In April, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (“NCJFCJ”) agreed to pay $300,000 to the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) in full settlement of allegations that had been raised about how NCJFCJ recorded staff time on federally funded projects, and allegations about possible conflicts of interest. From the very beginning, NCJFCJ fully cooperated with the DOJ in its review and in the ultimate resolution of these issues. We took these allegations seriously as NCJFCJ is committed to ensuring that our administrative standards and training policies are of optimum quality. We have addressed all the concerns raised by the DOJ, and by putting into place some administrative changes, have ensured that the DOJ will not have such concerns again.

Although we have and continue to dispute the characterization of some of these concerns, we determined that it was in the best interests of the NCJFCJ and its long relationship with the DOJ to settle these issues and resolve the DOJ’s concerns. This allowed us to focus on improvements to our administrative procedures and to continue doing the quality work that helps judges all over the country. There was no admission of liability in the settlement agreement.  We are now in a position to move forward and are pleased that DOJ is fully satisfied with the measures we have taken.

Our Executive Director, Mary Mentaberry, is a long-standing dedicated public servant who has worked tirelessly to improve the administration of the organization. She has the support and confidence of the entire Board of Trustees and I, personally, am proud to have her as a colleague and friend, as well as Executive Director of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. 

The NCJFCJ looks forward to a long future of cooperation with the DOJ on the important issues of improving America’s juvenile and family justice system.

Honorable Susan B. Carbon
Supervisory Judge, Concord Family Division, Concord, NH
President, National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
April 30, 2008