Judge Peggy Hora Honored for Judicial Education Excellence

On Monday, December 4, Judge Peggy Hora, who retired from the California Superior Court in 2006 with 21 years on the bench, received the 2017 V. Robert Payant Award for Judicial Education Excellence. The ceremony was held in Charleston, South Carolina as part of the annual conference of the National Association of State Judicial Educators (NASJE).

Judge Hora is the 28th recipient of the Payant Award, given annually by the National Judicial College (NJC) and named in honor of Judge Payant, a distinguished Michigan trial judge who served as NJC dean and president from 1990 to 1998.

JSI Co-Founder

Currently Judge Hora is President and Co-Founder of the Justice Speakers’ Institute (JSI), the essential resource for speakers, trainers, and writers on justice issues facing local to international jurisdictions.

Upon taking the bench, Judge Hora quickly recognized the pervasive and negative impact alcohol and other drugs have on individuals, families, communities, the courts, and the criminal justice system.

She focused her professional development on therapeutic jurisprudence and became a leader of the problem-solving courts movement, which offers real help and healing to addicts all over the world.

Judicial Education at the NJC

She joined the faculty of the National Judicial College in 1992 and has written and taught nearly 60 NJC courses on such leading-edge topics as fairness and the courts, practical aspects of substance abuse in criminal cases, and the changing role of judges and community courts.

She was a Senior Judicial Fellow for both the National Drug Court Institute and the Global Centre for Drug Treatment Courts, and is a former dean of the B.E. Witkin Judicial College of California. She also is an Honorary President of the International Therapeutic Jurisprudence Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing legal and interdisciplinary scholarship.

An International Leader

Judge Hora remains a global leader in solution-focused courts, speaking at conferences worldwide and providing hands-on training on Treatment Courts in Israel, the United Kingdom, Argentina, France, Bermuda, Canada, Chile, Japan, The Netherlands, Russia, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand.

She was a visiting scholar at the University of Tasmania School of Law, and was a 2009-2010 Thinker in Residence appointed by the Premier of South Australia to study and make recommendations on the Australian justice system.

She also has written comprehensively on justice issues. The appellate court and almost 200 journals and law reviews have cited her work.