This and That in Court Technology - October 2021

 

Fall leaves via https://bit.ly/3vPp959

In this months post, we share news and notes from Tiny Chat on Text Messaging, a very nice online forms website from Washington state, news regarding a new US federal judiciary vulnerability policy, news of good work being done by the District Court in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, practical information on PDF file formats from the US Library of Congress, and a last-minute call for participation in the annual Trends in State Courts report.

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NCSC Tiny Chat on Text Messaging

Continuing with our "practical advice October" series.  Our friends at NCSC Tiny Chat have posted a tutorial on the considerations and decisions courts should make when embarking on the use of text messages to remind and inform court users.

Congratulations, Danielle and Zach, and guest speaker Sean McDonald

Washington LawHelp Forms Online

Thanks to a Tweet by our friend, Marc Lauritsen, we learn about a terrific Washington state legal forms website.  What I like about this one for Washington Law Help from the Northwest Justice Project is the presentation and the easy/obvious inclusion of an instructional video on the home screen.

Well done.

US Federal Judiciary Launches Vulnerability Disclosure Program

Via press release published on October 13, 2021

"The federal Judiciary has unveiled a new Vulnerability Disclosure Policy to ensure the security of data that can be accessed online. The policy gives security researchers clear guidelines on how they may conduct vulnerability discovery activities. It also instructs researchers on how to submit discovered vulnerabilities to the Judiciary.

Vulnerability disclosure policies are quickly becoming an industry-standard in the security practice, as federal agencies work to secure their networks from hackers and other nefarious actors.

Federal government agencies, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Energy (DOE), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and more have issued similar plans.

Under the policy, researchers must stop testing as soon as they establish that a vulnerability exists or they encounter any sensitive data. This can include personally identifiable information, financial information, or proprietary information or trade secrets of any party. Researchers also must notify the Judiciary immediately, and not disclose data they have accessed to anyone else.

This policy applies to the following systems and services:

• www.uscourts.gov, the official website of the federal Judiciary;
• oscar.uscourts.gov, the federal law clerk and appellate staff attorney recruitment website; and
• ecf.cmsd.aocms.uscourts.gov, a test site for the federal court's electronic case file and case management system.

Any service not expressly listed above is outside the disclosure policy and is not authorized for testing. Similarly, an extensive list of specific activities, including denial of service attacks, are not authorized.

The policy warns that any unauthorized activities may be regarded as illegal hacking. “If you engage in any activities that are inconsistent with this policy or other applicable law, you may be subject to criminal and/or civil liabilities,” it noted.

Questions regarding this policy and suggestions for improving it may be sent to support@responsibledisclosure.com(link sends e-mail)."

A Court Doing Great Things

Our good friend Norman Meyer shared a note on the Court Leader blog regarding his home county trial court.  He wrote:

"During my career, I have witnessed a tremendous evolution in how courts operate and provide services to the public.  Not so long ago, courts basically strived to be fair and impartial forums for the resolution of disputes, and not much more.  Since then, the courts have faced increasing societal changes and demands (e.g., large numbers of drug-related cases, the difficulty of obtaining affordable legal representation, and the effects of the ongoing COVID pandemic) by broadening their functions and services.

An excellent example of a court that is meeting this challenge is right here where I live – Bernalillo County, New Mexico. The Second Judicial District Court (https://seconddistrictcourt.nmcourts.gov/) has instituted many public service initiatives that work to meet the needs of our community. Earlier this month the court administrator of the court did a great job of summarizing the court’s services in an op-ed in our local newspaper: Our court delivers much more than verdicts - Albuquerque Journal (newsmemory.com)."

Click here for the full post listing the services and programs the court has offered.

US Library of Congress Resource Pages on PDF

I stumbled on two very useful web pages posted by the Library of Congress that:

1. A description of the PDF (Portable Document Format) Family of standards along with notes on sustainability factors, quality, and useful notes.

2. A page on PDF, Version 1.7 which is ISO 32000-1:2008 standard also with notes and links to additional "useful references".

Good information.

Trends in State Courts

A last-minute reminder...

"NCSC's annual publication, Trends in State Courts is beginning its production cycle for the 2022 edition with a call for abstracts.  Trends articles cover a wide range of topics for the benefit of the court community.  Please take a look at the current and past issues to get a better idea of what Trends is. 

The NCSC asks consideration to submit a 500-word abstract by October 31, 2021.  Guidelines are available.