Effingham County State Court Administrator Lisa Crawford was certified in court administration by the Georgia Council of Court Administrators at its fall conference in Savannah on Oct. 27.

The GCCA was created by the state Legislature in 1997 to promote the profession of court management. The main focus of the certification program is to train court managers in 10 core areas of management identified by the National Association for Court Management and the Institute of Court Management. The certification program takes a minimum of two years of specialized training to complete.

Crawford has been an employee of Effingham County since 2003 and the court administrator of the State Court since February 2005.

“The training was very challenging,” Crawford said.  “The knowledge and network that I’ve gained will help us stay on top of the growth we’ve experienced and keep us up to date on changes in technology and the law.”

The State Court of Effingham County is one of 70 courts in Georgia having county-wide jurisdiction over misdemeanor criminal cases, including traffic cases, and all civil cases, except domestic relations and equity cases. Last year there were more than 1 million cases filed in the State Courts, making them the busiest courts of record in Georgia.