This and That in Court Technology – June, 2013

CTC-2013 Keynote, Alec Ross

Everyone must be getting ready for vacation.  We have a lot to share in this start of summer 2013 edition.

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CTC-2013 Keynote Speaker Announced

Our opening keynote for CTC-2013, Big Ideas is Alec Ross. For the past four years, Ross served as Senior Advisor for Innovation for former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. When Ross addresses CTC attendees Sept. 17, he will talk about how courts can maximize technology’s potential and adopt innovation into court processes. Ross is going to challenge your thinking about what’s possible and show you how innovation can transform your court.

To see an interesting “Big Think” video interview with Alec click here.

Gateways to Justice

In 2009 I had the honor of participating in a conference with Dr. Anne Wallace and Prof. Emma Louise Rowden at the beginning of their research project examining and testing the how video communications should be implemented and used by the courts.  They have now published the results of their three year effort.  And another good friend of ours, Patrick Cormier of the Canadian Center for Court Technology has written a review of their work.

The complete report is available at: http://www.uws.edu.au/justice/justice/publications

Congratulations to everyone in Australia for this important work.  Highly recommended.

Texas E-Filing Portal in Transition

We missed this big announcement last fall (PDF).  The State of Texas E-filing portal is being transitioned from Texas Courts Online to the new TexFile.com system.  TexFile is being built by Tyler Technologies and the transition beings on September 1, 2013.

NAJIS 2013 Conference – September 10-12, 2013

Our good friends at the National Association for Justice Information Systems (NAJIS) will be holding their annual conference in San Diego, California the week before CTC-2013.  For more see their website at: http://www.najis.org/

New Jersey E-Court Funding

Bill Raftery at our sister blog – Gavel to Gavel has written about the New Jersey Assembly’s Judiciary Committee pressing for additional funding for their e-courts initiatives.

Utah Court E-Filing Guidance Webpage

The Utah State Courts have built a terrific web page of eFiling resources and guidance.  Included in the page is their Electronic Filing Guide (in PDF naturally), eFiling Video Tips for Attorneys, a list of their certified eFiling providers, a FAQ, instructions to convert numbered lists to text in MS Word, and a Quick Tip document on how to classify documents as public, private, or sealed.

Their take on many questions I often receive on E-filing is definitely worth checking out.

See: http://www.utcourts.gov/efiling/

PDF is 20 Years Old

Last, celebrating the same year / age as the Internet browser, we learned that PDF format officially turned 20 on June 15, 2013.  Think back to 1993.  Doesn’t it almost seem like the Stone Age compared to where we are now?