The 2015 CITOC Innovation Awards

The Court Information Technology Officers Consortium (CITOC), with support from the National Association for Court Management (NACM), and the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA) announced the 2015 CITOC Innovation Awards at its annual meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota on September 21, 2015.  The awards recognized two notable contributions to the judiciary in Technology and Court Business Processes. And the winners are...

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MyMNConservator (MMC)

Minnesota Judicial Branch has taken an aggressive approach to protecting the assets of vulnerable persons under court jurisdiction.  With the assistance of a State Justice Institute grant, the statewide Conservator Account Audit Program (CAAP) has developed a robust online application for conservators to file detailed inventory and annual accounting.  The application has the look and feel of many financial applications and contains both textual and on line video help to assist conservators. The application provides benefits to conservators, court staff and judges. The design provides features such as easy data entry and highly visible asset balances that assist conservators in managing assets, in addition to reporting to the court.  Integration with the court case management system provide efficiencies for court staff and auditors for the management of timely account filing and for the review and audit of assets under court jurisdiction.  A further benefit to court staff reviewing the accounting and auditors conducting audits is the red flag logic.  The application provides system analysis of each accounting as it is filed to determine potential issues based on pre-programmed logic resulting in efficiencies for audits and account reviews.  The system further provides a means for the auditors to submit their audit report addressing issues to the court for approval or hearing.  The application is available for implementation in other courts interested in increasing their oversight.

Accepting the award was Dean Buker, Information Technology Division Director


Justice of the Peace Court, Precinct 3, Williamson County, Texas

Williamson County covers a vast area and is one of America's fastest growing counties. Therefore, as stewards of the funds and responsibilities entrusted to the Justice of the Peace, Precinct 3 of Williamson County, our dedicated staff is eager to improve business processes that reduce the time required to complete tasks, reduce operating costs and increase the level of service to the public and other agencies. Odyssey has made it possible to transition our office from a dominantly paper-driven office to an office with electronic-driven processes. In our move towards a paperless office, we have increased efficiency by using Odyssey, additional Tyler products and the highest quality scanners to eliminate the use of paper files completely.

Converting to an electronic-driven office has resulted in a large reduction in operating costs by reducing the use of paper, office supplies and toner. Our office has created paperless workflows thereby reducing our document storage requirements and allowing us to recapture 500 square feet of valuable office space. In the newly created space, a work station and break area have been created.
Implementing Session Works Judge's Edition has streamlined courtroom processes to be more efficient.

As a result of cases being electronically stored in Odyssey, case information is readily available to employees, other departments and the public. Odyssey forms were created using the Forms and Documents option thus eliminating the need to create Microsoft word documents outside of the case management program. Case events are configured to auto-populate forms, a case status and disposition. The time that was previously spent creating case files, copying, filing, etc., is now used to cross-train and assist the public. Reports can be scheduled and electronically delivered to certain persons through the use of the Reports option. Reports are used as a checks and balances for confirming pending and disposed cases.

Judge Bill Gravell accepted the award for his court.