Ralph N. Kleps

Ralph N. Kleps, a nationally recognized expert in the field of court administration, became California’s first Administrative Director of the Courts in 1961.

The use of information technology first proliferated in the courts during Mr. Kleps’s 16-year tenure. In his 1969 address “Computers and Court Management,” he drew on survey statistics to find that in 1966 only 12 of California’s 58 superior courts were “utilizing data processing equipment.” Despite this low figure, he believed the widespread use of information technology was inevitable and welcome, but it was no panacea.

“None of us should be unduly optimistic about the possibility that the machines of the future are going to solve the problems of the present,” he warned. “Unless we continue to work like beavers on the problems of the present, keeping an eye on the machines of the future, they will never be able to assist us with those problems when the future arrives.”

In 1991, the Judicial Council instituted the Ralph N. Kleps Awards for Improvement in the Administration of the Courts to honor the contributions made by individual courts to improving access to a fair and impartial judicial system.