Friday, March 17, 2006

Alabama AOC Intoduces AlaFile

Chief Justice Drayton Nabers, Jr. recently introduced via direct webcast the new statewide AlaFile(tm) electronic court document filing system to Alabama Attorneys. The new system will initially focus on the nearly 200,000 civil filings submitted each year in the state. The project website lays out an agressive implementation schedule and provides information on the court rules, electronic procedures, a FAQ, and a feedback form. (Please note that is best to view these websites using Microsoft Internet Explorer.)

Wednesday, March 8, 2006

One Judge's Experience with his Tablet PC by O. John Kuenhold

O. John Kuenhold is the Chief Judge in the 12th District of Colorado. He was appointed as a District Court Judge in 1981. Judge Kuenhold received his law degree from the University of Michigan in 1969, the same year he was admitted to the Colorado Bar. From offices in Alamosa County, Kuenhold sits in all six counties that comprise the 12th Judicial District, hearing appeals form county court and cases arising under criminal, civil, juvenile, domestic relations, and mental health law. He recently shared some of his experiences with the Tablet PC with me and I received permission from him to pass them along.

All the district judges in Colorado now have Tablet convertible PCs running on XP with Office 2003 and OneNote. My experience with a tablet PC is similar to the NCSC Technology group. At first I was greatly enamored with the handwriting ability (You can really "sign" orders in Word to send to e-filing) but have found that I use it the Tablet PC convertible more as a conventional laptop. I have had some carpal tunnel problems from overuse of the mouse. With the Tablet PC one can review e-mails and delete messages with the pen. It actually saves time and is also kind to the wrist. In Colorado, our Tablet PCs come with a program called Microsoft OneNote which can be used on any XP based computer. 

One Note takes good advantage of the handwriting and drawing features of the Tablet PC ability, but the program has other more impressive features as well. It allows a tab-based organization of complex related materials. For example, I create an electronic One Note folder for each trial witrh subfolders for each side's witnesses and a folder for pleadings and another for research. I create a "page" for each witness. These tabs sit to the right side of the screen so you can jump back and forth. One can also import other documents as a picture on the OneNote page with links back to the original document. So if I have found a case on Westlaw that I wish to refer back to, I import the case and it becomes a tabbed page. Similarly, I was the official secretary at our last chief judge's meeting. During the meeting there were references to all kinds of documents that had been emailed to us before the meeting. I had imported all the documents as pages into OneNote so they were tabbed in the folder. When I finished my minutes, I sent them out to the other chiefs, administrators and the Chief Justice as a One Note file. They could then read the minutes and, with one click go to the document that the minutes refer to. No more trying to find that email from three weeks ago!

Friday, March 3, 2006

Georgia Courts Applying BI Technology

Jorge Basto, Director of Technology for the Georgia Administrative Office of the Courts was the subject of a recent ComputerWorld magazine article titled: Central Intelligence: Large organizations are moving to consolidated BI suites; (w)hy many large organizations are moving to consolidated business intelligence suites. In the article he notes that their goal is to implement this technology by the end of the year. And, that by implementing business intelligence technology "he believes the benefits of consolidating court reporting and analysis applications will be substantial: 'There are seven levels of courts, numerous court-related agencies and offices, as well as several executive and legislative agencies that could use this information.'"

Wednesday, March 1, 2006

Federal Court Visiting Judges Helped by Electronic Files

The US Federal Court newsletter, "The Third Branch" has published an article titled Visiting Judges Take Their Work On The Road in which it notes:

"Courts that don't use visiting judges usually cite a lack of clerical support and/or space. However, the use of Case Management/Electronic Case Files in the district courts has made it even easier for visiting judges in terms of handling paperwork. And with CM/ECF, a visiting judge may not have to travel to a court to offer assistance."

So there's another reason for state courts to break the addiction to paper.

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Washington Technology Magazine Recognizes XML Work

Washington Technology Magazine recently published an article titled "Integrators Woo Criminal Justice Work" that highlights several GJXDM based projects. The article also mentions several jurisdictions and companies that are involved in creating these systems.

Monday, February 20, 2006

E-Courts 2006 Conference Website is Online

The E-Courts 2006 conference website is now available. The fifth edition of the E-Courts conference will be held from December 11-13, 2006 in Las Vegas, Nevada. This year's focus will be on organizational transformation that we call "Digital Opportunity" as well as cool new technology. This is the one court technology event that you will not want to miss this year.

Monday, February 13, 2006

Michigan's Electronic Statistical Reporting System

While doing some research recently we found that the Michigan AOC has implemented an electronic statistical report submission system. We contacted them and received the following excellent article from Ms. Laura Hutzel, Research and Policy Analyst, Michigan Supreme Court,
State Court Administrative Office:

Michigan trial courts use a web-based application, the Caseload Reporting System (CRS), to report caseload data to the State Court Administrative Office (SCAO). This secure application assists courts with caseload reporting and provides standard output reports.

Trial courts are required to submit a wealth of caseload data to SCAO. The courts report the number of cases pending at the beginning of the year, the number of new filings each quarter, the number of reopened cases each quarter, and the number of cases disposed by different methods each quarter. 

These figures are reported for every case type. In addition, circuit courts submit juvenile case statistics, the number of juveniles under supervision, child protective statistics, and the number of children who are court wards. Probate courts also submit the number of people with guardians and conservators, the number of active estates and trusts, and the number of second or continuing petitions for mental commitments. Each trial judge is required to submit annual disposed case age and pending case age reports through CRS. Based on the reported data, CRS calculates the number of cases pending at the end of each quarter.

CRS contains many features to assist courts with reporting caseload data. Using SCAO-issued usernames and passwords, authorized court employees can access CRS. The chief judge or court administrator can use CRS to electronically add or remove authorization for their employees. In the secure environment, authorized employees can electronically upload or manually enter caseload data. They can also view reports that identify missing, incomplete, or inconsistent data. Using CRS, users can e-mail a question to the Help Desk, read a list of frequently asked questions and answers, or download the reporting manuals and instructions. SCAO employees can use CRS to send reminder e-mail messages to courts that have not yet submitted or verified their caseload data. Chief judges log in to CRS and verify when the annual data for their courts is ready for publication. Upon receiving the chief judge's verification, CRS automatically sends a confirmation e-mail to the chief judge.
CRS contains eleven different output reports of the reported caseload data. Throughout the year, authorized users can obtain a summary report that consolidates caseload data into general categories, such as civil, criminal, and domestic relations. They can also obtain a full detail report which lists each case type. Summary and detail reports for all state trial courts are compiled for the Michigan Supreme 

Court's Annual Report and posted on the public website at:

Case age reports are under development and will show the extent to which each judge met recommended time guidelines.

Indiana Releases Case Management System PNCO

On February 13, 2006, the Indiana Supreme Court published a Public Notice of Contracting Opportunities (PNCO) seeking proposals which would provide Indiana courts and clerks with a 21st Century Case Management System (CMS).

Monday, February 6, 2006

North Dakota Courts Website Supports PDAs

Ms. Anne Skove of our NCSC Knowledge and Information Services group spotted the North Dakota Court's website that allows downloads to Personal Digital Assistants, also known as PDAs. A PDA is often referred to as a Palm, Treo, or Pocket PC. North Dakota allows downloads of information from the Supreme Court Home Page, Supreme Court Opinions, Supreme Court Calendar and Briefs, and Lawyer Directory.

Thursday, February 2, 2006

Courtroom Technology Listing

Here's a "quick to implement" idea. The Federal District Court in Albuquerque, New Mexico has posted a description of the various audio, visual, and computer technology that is available in their courtrooms. The quick reference grid is very easy to understand. Great idea!

Friday, January 27, 2006

Scott Fairholm Takes Policy Assignment

Scott Fairholm has taken on a new assignment as National Technology Policy Advisor with the National Center for State Courts. He will be focusing on national court technology policy issues including federal information sharing standards, coordination with Global and NIEM related activities and the development of a justice reference service oriented architecture.

A New Year for NCSC Technology

We are pleased to announce several new faces and changes in responsibilities for technology activities within the NCSC, all aimed at enhancing services to the court community while simultaneously bolstering the voice of courts in federal justice information technology initiatives.
Terrie Bousquin of Santa Fe, New Mexico joined as Director of Technology Services on January 1st. Terrie comes to the Center from four years as a partner and co-owner of Greacen Associates, LLC, following six years as the judiciary CIO for New Mexico.
Jim Harris of Orlando, Florida, joined as Senior Court Technology Associate. Jim has most recently been serving as a technical advisor for the Orange County Clerk of Courts in Orlando, Florida. He was previously Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Court Specialists, Inc., a court case management product vendor.
Shirley Sutherland began as the Administrative Manager for Technology Services in late 2005.
Tom Carlson was promoted to Court Technology Associate and among other things serves as the primary technical representative from the court community on the XML Structure Task Force (XSTF) for the GJXDM as well as on the NIEM Technical Architecture Group (NTAG). Tom was responsible for developing the Wayfarer tool for navigating the GJXDM. It is currently available on the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) website and on the NCSC website.
Technology Services has responsibility for analyses, recommendations, and support to the major national court technology groups and policy bodies, including the Joint Technology Committee (JTC), the Chief Information Technology Officers' Consortium (CITOC), COSCA, and NACM. Through its work with national and international courts, justice partners, and other NCSC divisions, Technology Services identifies, synthesizes, models, and tests court technology and associated business process, data, design, and implementation alternatives with potential applicability to the wider court community. Technology Services is the primary NCSC resource for creating and vetting XML solutions for court information sharing and for court technology standards development, implementation, and information dissemination. Technology Services presents major national technology educational and conference opportunities for courts and provides Help Desk assistance for GJXDM related questions from courts.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Tablet PCs Invade NCSC Technology Division

Like the old movie The Blob, a new type of computer has taken over our group here at the NCSC; the Tablet PC. Every technology professional in our group now uses either a convertible or slate style Tablet PC. For those of you who don't know, a convertible Tablet PC is similar to a laptop except that there is a hinge that let's one flip the screen around to lay flat across the keyboard. Our group currently has Tablet PCs from IBM (Lenovo), Toshiba, HP, and Fujitsu.
Some of the advantages to this format of computer that we have already found are first, one can use the computer on cramped airline seats. By flipping the screen ( Toshiba currently has a short commercial on their website that shows the flip ) one can use the pen to read, write, and work with applications like e-mail. A second advantage is that the convertible Tablet PC is a full featured laptop. So when I am in the office, I can use it with the keyboard and mouse as I am doing now to write this article. A third advantage is the ability to use the pen to take and save handwritten notes. I have Microsoft OneNote 2003 installed on my Tablet PC and one nice feature is continual file saving. When I write a note, it is automatically saved on the machine's hard drive; no more, click file, click save. Further, we recently saw Colorado Courts CIO, Bob Roper's Tablet PC where he has their entire judicial Bench Book organized in OneNote. We are planning to have Bob and a couple of Colorado Judges demonstrate their systems in December at the E-Courts 2006 Conference. Finally, we have found that the handwriting recognition is very good. Interestingly, for me it seems is more accurate in deciphering my left-hand cursive handwriting versus writing in block letters. And, OneNote lets me be able to search my handwritten notes even if they haven't been converted to text. In general the Technology group is just now learning what we can do with our machines; but from our first impressions, we are happy with out acquisitions. For a good website that collects user's impressions on the hardware, software, and accessories related to Tablet PC's see the Tablet PC Buzz website.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Juvenile Information Sharing Training

Thanks to our friends at the Center for Network Development we received an announcement for two upcoming workshops, Introducing Juvenile Information Sharing (JIS) Guidelines. JIS enables agencies to share essential information through structured procedures and technology. The two workshops will be held from March 20-21 in Arlington, Virginia and April 24-25 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. For more information and to receive the flyer and registration form you can contact Ms. Marilyn Webb at the CND in Denver, Colorado at 303-893-6898 or via e-mail at mwebb@TheCND.org

Friday, December 9, 2005

Clark County Regional Justice Center Videoconferencing

Our good friend Chuck Short, Court Administrator in Clark County, Nevada passed along this press release by Michael Sommermeyer.

The District Court has successfully started the court's first transcontinental trial in Department 17 by linking the courtroom with a remote site in Boston, Mass by video conference.

The videoconferencing trial, presided over by Judge Stefany Miley, allows a bed-confined defendant to participate in the proceedings through a two-way video link using court cameras and the Internet. The proceedings continue today.

This success was made possible by the efforts of Wayne Slater, Justice Court, David DeBoef, County Information Technology and Brian Gilmore, DC Assistant Court Administrator.

For more information please contact Michael Sommermeyer, Court Information Officer, Eighth Judicial District Court Las Vegas Township Justice Court, Regional Justice Center at: (702) 671-4534, sommerm@co.clark.nv.us

Monday, November 21, 2005

CTC9 Papers Posted

Many educational papers and presentations for CTC9 are now available on the conference website. Subjects such as the "E-Courts Roadmap", "Court Automation Made Simple - How to get the Cutting Edge without Spending a Fortune", and many others are covered.

Monday, October 31, 2005

SJI E-News Interview on Security

The Halloween, 2005 issue of SJI E-News (PDF) contains an inteview with Wendell Shingler who is the Director of the Federal Protective Service. The Federal Protective Service is the organization in charge of court security for US Federal Judges and Courthouses. There is also an article about the Justice Management Institute's new book on courthouse security.

Friday, October 21, 2005

Ideas for a Secure Laptop

In its October 10, 2005 edition, Federal Computer Week ran an excellent article on how the US Justice Department is implementing new technology to protect data on laptop computers. A sidebar to the article lists 8 ways to improve security such as implementing encryption and tracking devices on laptop PCs; and the use of removable storage. Let's take three of these ideas one by one.

First, turning on encryption in Windows 2000/XP is pretty simple. According to Microsoft's website you perform the following steps: 
  1. Open Windows Explorer
  2. Right-click the file or folder that you want to encrypt, and then click Properties.
  3. On the General tab, click Advanced.
  4. Select the Encrypt contents to secure data check box.
Encrypting a Microsoft Word document is also a fairly easy affair. If you have a document you wish to secure, first open the document, then go to the Tools menu, select Options, and click on the Security tab. You can then enter the password for that specific document. But of course the danger in all of this encryption is forgetting the password, so rather than writing it on a "sticky note", one might consider an embedded fingerprint scanner such as the one built into a new laptop model when it's time to upgrade.

Second, the idea of a stolen laptop being able to "phone home" is now possible. There is a number of stealth tracking software solutions available that can be installed on your computer. When a laptop is stolen one notifies the service provider and they begin a process of tracking down your computer once it has been connected to the Internet. One could argue that if the thief simply erases the hard disk drive they could thwart this system. However, most computers have hidden sectors on the hard drives where this kind of software can be placed and disguised. And besides, as we know working in the criminal justice system, thieves are often not very clever.

Third, the use of removable storage is a great idea. There are three common ways that this can be accomplished. Currently for under $150 a two gigabyte USB storage flash drive can be purchased. While you won't be able to store your entire library of Beethoven Symphonies on this drive, it should be sufficient for most judges' working document files. A second option is a removable PC Card hard disk drive that contains 5 gigabytes of storage. And finally, for those of you who wish to backup everything on your computer along with your Beethoven, there is the popular Apple iPod (or other alternative) which in the near future will be able to store 60 gigabytes of information.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

US National Archives Awards Electronic Archive Contract

We missed this announcement somehow last month in the run up to CTC9; but after a year long competition the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) held a press conference on September 8, 2005 to announce that the team headed by Lockheed-Martin had won. I have been searching the Internet, but technical details on the new system seem to be in short supply. Federal Computer Week wrote that the plan is to build a multi-tiered platform that will allow new technology and systems to be easily added to the archive. Washington Technology adds that it will be built using open standards. This is definitely something for our court community to watch as we transition to electronic records and archives.

Friday, September 23, 2005

CTC9 a Success!

We are just now recovering from CTC9. What a great conference. First, if you missed the conference, or attended and wanted to share the keynote and several sessions with your colleagues, you can do so via streaming internet video. Go to the CTC Streaming Media website to see keynote sessions by Senator Slade Gordon, former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith, and Microsoft's Chris Capossela. Several educational sessions focusing on GJXDM technology and security were also captured.
Too many other things happened during the conference to be discussed in a brief article but, Scott Fairholm wanted to pass along that the Chief Information Technology Officers Consortium (CITOC) held its first meeting during the Wednesday afternoon SIGs. Over 100 state and local court CIOs attended the meeting to hear from Chief Justice Toal (SC) who opened the session and to learn more about how they can be involved in CITOC. If you are a court CIO and missed the session, you can go to the CITOC website to learn more and to join.
Larry Webster noted that he was impressed with the progress that has been made with electronic filing and document managements systems in recent years. And another thing that struck him was how much more important electronic information sharing seems to be to courts than it has in the past. So the good news is that the courts are becoming more electronic and more connected.
Finally we would like to thank everyone who attended the conference for their participation and support. It was wonderful seeing all of our friends and we look forward to CTC10 in Tampa, Florida in October, 2007.