No, not another essay on parenting, but Ch J. Michael Thornton’s announcement of the latest improvements to Tax Court paperwork and procedures, which was released today, August 19, on Tax Court’s website, are worthy of comment.

Here’s the whole story. What follows is a digest.

Counsels’ rooms in select locations, where practitioners and clients can meet to discuss their cases before showing up for calendar call, will be made available to Bar-sponsored calendar call programs and low-income tax clinics. Certainly a welcome accommodation  to the assisters of those unable to afford the highly-credentialed and even more highly-paid practitioners who take their ease therein.

Judge Thornton also announces a new line of stuffers. These are not the products of Mr. Frank Perdue’s massive operation, but rather enclosures to accompany various Tax Court mailings to the self-represented, informing them in simple terms of some of the numerous twists and turns in the Tax Court path.

There’s also a kinder, gentler application for waiver of the $60 filing fee, and new requirements for academic and non-academic clinics. But the volunteers should show up an hour before calendar call (that is, 8 a.m., as the new stuffer tells the petitioners to show up at 9 a.m.).

These improvements are the outcome of practitioner, volunteer and government input. It’s always a good thing when stakeholders collaborate to ease the process for all parties.