8/28/06 -- Domestic violence prevention and education has long been a major focus of the Reno-based National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ). As a result of a recent Nevada Supreme Court mandate, the NCJFCJ will collaborate with Nevada’s Administrative Office of the Courts in November to present one-day training sessions in Reno and Las Vegas to teach the state’s justice and municipal court judges and family court masters about some of the critical issues surrounding this complex topic.

Nevada Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Rose led the effort to provide education to Nevada’s judicial officers who often see domestic violence-related cases in their courtrooms or handle temporary protective orders. Justice Rose indicated that training for District Court judges will be presented at a later date. The last time domestic violence training was mandated for Nevada judges was in 1993.

The one-day training is a shortened version of the NCJFCJ’s Enhancing Judicial Skills in Domestic Violence Cases (EJS) workshop, a three-day program which has been presented more than 25 times around the country since first developed in 1999. Faculty for November’s trainings, which will focus on victim and perpetrator behavior and decision-making skills, will include judges and national domestic violence experts. Funded by the federal Office on Violence Against Women, the EJS workshop is presented by the National Judicial Institute on Domestic Violence, a partnership between NCJFCJ and the Family Violence Prevention Fund.