Cell phones out of control? Call Yondr.

Fed up with cell phones in your courtroom? Concerned about the surreptitious recording of witnesses, undercover agents and/or jurors? Are your jurors accessing cell/mobile devices when they shouldn't be? Are witnesses in your courtrooms communicating via text when they shouldn't be?   At the E-Courts 2016 conference we learned about Yondr, a company that provides a new and different solution for cell/mobile phone device security in courthouses and secure facilities.

This and That in Court Technology – December, 2016

In this month's edition, we have e-Courts information; some news items and announcements from Microsoft; Alameda County, California CMS problems; a new way to annotate legal briefs; and some holiday gift guides for last minute shopping.

---

Maryland Courts Release Law Help Mobile App

Thanks to our good friend Bonnie Hough we learned that the Maryland Judiciary has a free mobile app that provides easy access to tools and resources to aid Marylanders in using the courts and getting legal help.  The Maryland Law Help app includes: self-help videos, court form finders, direct links to CALL or CHAT directly with an attorney at the Md. Courts Self-Help Center, access to the People's Law Library and court legal help pages, as well as  information on  law libraries, mediation and language access. The app is available for Apple and Android devices through the App Store and Google Play.  For more information see: http://mdcourts.gov/legalhelp/mobileapp.html

Congratulations to the Maryland Judiciary for some great work.

This and That in Court Technology – Early Summer 2016

At the beginning of summer 2016, we share court technology news from the IACA European Regional Conference, Mississippi mobile access to justice app plans, online juror research restriction, Colorado online court information access questions, and a really big new computer monitor.

This and That in Court Technology – Late February 2016

A lot of news to share in this edition of our regular roundup of news and events.  We learned about Bots in the UK Courts, a new NCSC Report on Body Worn Cameras and the Courts, an Court Technology Director job opening in Seattle, Washington, Ravel Law judicial analytic services expansion, CenturyLink's new governmental cloud service, Microsoft "Plumbago", Pennsylvania Courts online payment system performance for 2015, and what the deal is with Windows 10 "telemetry" reporting.

This and That in Court Technology - January, 2016

By Sinead Friel (Kangaroo  Uploaded by snowmanradio)
[CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 )],
via Wikimedia Commons

In this month's news we have items from Australia, Indiana, Minnesota, the US Government Accountability Office, the FiveThirtyEight.com statistical analysis website, China, and the Consumer Electronics Show.

McMillan Award 2015 Finalist – Miguel Navarro

In the second of three articles recognizing McMillan Award finalists, we present Miguel Navarro from the ITO Central Office in the Administrative Office of the Courts in Trenton, NJ and his (and Robert Jacobsen’s) CTC-2015 presentation.

New South Wales Australia Announces Online Court Project

Sydney, Australia Opera House
Photo by DAVID ILIFF.
License: CC-BY-SA 3.0

Via press release: Wednesday, 9 September 2015

Access to justice will be faster, easier and cheaper with the pilot of the State’s first Online Court, Attorney General Gabrielle Upton today announced.

The Online Court will initially be used for civil cases in the Local Court General Division and will eliminate the need for legal practitioners to attend pre-trial hearings in court.
Ms Upton said the use of online legal services which will improve access to justice and ensure services meet people’s expectations.

This and That in Court Technology – September, 2015

This month we have news and notes about a crowdsourcing funding project, advances in artificial intelligence powered speech recognition, criminal case E-filing in Illinois, some comments about the new Apple's iPad Pro and Pencil, a new tiny cheap computer, IBM pitches Watson to trial lawyers, solar windows, and cleaning your gadgets.

Small Investment, Large Return Using Text and Mail Reminders

Our NCSC Justice Reform and Government Accountability (JRGA) project funded by USAID in Serbia reported great success using SMS text and mail reminders in the Misdemeanor Courts.

This and That in Court Technology – August, 2015

Lots of news for a hot and sticky summer week from Pennsylvania, Open Law Labs, Adobe, Washington DC, Arizona, Nebraska, and fun tech toy land.

Highlighting Some CTC-2015 Education Sessions

We share some CTC-2015 sessions that you might consider when attending the upcoming conference. But this article is mainly to show a sample of the outstanding conference content coming this fall in Minneapolis.

An early July, 2015 edition of This and That in Court Technology

A summer Iowa corn field

Lots and lots to share including news from Iowa, Texas, Arkansas,  US Federal Court’s OSCAR system, a new records management app, and tips for “mobile warriors”.

This and That in Court Technology – April/Spring 2015 Edition

From a flowering springtime in Williamsburg, Virginia we share our latest news bites from around the court tech world.  In this edition we share news about a CTC scholarship, social media process service, another electronic verification failure, new mobile phone apps for scanning and court check in, a white paper on court technology in 2020, and conference news.

New “Chip” Credit Cards Will Change Usage Liability for Courts

The COSCA/NACM Joint Technology Committee has issued a new resource bulletin, “EMV and Credit Card Liability: What Courts Need to Know”.  As discussed last year in a CTB article, this mandatory change is coming in October, 2015.

Fantastical – A Natural Language Calendar App

At the beginning of 2015 we (not so boldly) predicted that this was the year that we would see applications that use a more natural interface such as speech and pen input.  Here is one cool new program that could guide our CCMS development plans.

Bankruptcy Courts Report Savings and other Benefits from Electronic Noticing

DeBN Logo Developed by the
Bankruptcy Court for the
Central District of California

Via press release on February 19, 2015, we learned about the US Bankruptcy court electronic noticing system.  They write:

"While business is increasingly conducted using smart phones, tablets and laptops, debtors who file for bankruptcy protection continue to receive paper copies of court notices and orders by regular mail — a practice that consumes both time and money. Thanks to a new program available through the Bankruptcy Noticing Center (BNC), debtors in participating courts now have the option of receiving court-generated notices and orders electronically.

Faster WiFi Coming Soon to a Court Near You

Faster 802.11ac Wireless networks are coming.  Time to start planning.

Montgomery County, Texas Justice Automation Program Highlighted

©2014 TexasCourthouseTrail.com - Dave Fulp

An interesting article was posted on Government Technology magazine's website (www.govtech.com), "Montgomery County Hoping to be Among First in Texas to Go to a 'Paperless' Justice System by Cindy Horswell of McClatchy News Service on July 2, 2014.

Document scanning an E-filing barrier? Grab the phone!

I was reading an excellent E-filing report from the New York State Unified Court System today and noticed that several problems identified in the comment section revolved around the cost for organizations to be able to scan documents.  Well, I thought to myself, let’s see if there is an app that can help?