Not Just Police Body Cams

GoPro Pet Camera Mounts

A recent Pennsylvania appellate court decision points out that the record keepers will deal with more than just law enforcement body camera evidence. Courts are having to deal with video evidence from many sources.

This and That in Court Tech – June, 2017

https://www.travelwisconsin.com/ 

In this month’s news roundup we learn about Wisconsin's E-filing activities, news about Ravel Law and Court Innovations, Google's improved ability in language recognition, and some notes about improving communication understanding.

And last, some CTC 2017 educational program agenda news.

Courts Could Help to Protect Drivers from Traffic Ticket Phishing E-mail

CyberheistNews posted an article about “the NY State Department of Motor Vehicles warning about a phishing scam where New York drivers are being targeted, stating they have 48 hours to pay a fine or have their driver's license revoked.” In this post, we share some ideas that courts may consider to help to reduce or eliminate this problem.

JTC releases "Courts Disrupted" paper . . .

The Joint Technology Committee (JTC) has released a new Resource Bulletin titled “Courts Disrupted.” This paper takes a captivating look at today’s fast-changing world of innovation and public expectations. Recognizing courts will not remain untouched by disruptive innovation, the paper encourages embracing rather than resisting the opportunities to improve business processes and make justice more readily available to a wider audience.

Microsoft AI Services are Getting Real

Brussels Atomium

An excellent article posted on arstechnica.com on May 10, 2107  titled: “Microsoft’s bid to bring AI to every developer is starting to make sense”.  The subtitle is: “The API’s are getting good enough to be built into production systems”.  This is getting interesting.  More on the article below.

More From CourtHack 2.0

As promised, we have more details and now video from CourtHack 2.0.

Sponsorship opportunities at CourtHack 2.0

NCSC will be hosting CourtHack 2.0 April 22-23, 2017 at the New Jersey Law Center in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Participating teams will come together from a variety of sources: universities, not-for-profit development groups, industry, courts, and individuals gathering and forming teams on site. We anticipate around 150 participants, dividing into about 30 teams. Court experts from across the county, including judges, court administrators, and court CIOs, will participate as mentors, providing insight into the issues and the potential benefits to both courts and the communities they serve.

The challenge sets for CourtHack 2.0 include:

1. Fairness in Fees, Fines, and Bail Practices
2. Fairness: Leveling the Playing Field
3. Understanding Customer Experience
4. Translating Legalese to Folksonomy
5. Social Support for Families in Crisis
6. Wildcard! Closing Gaps in the Court System

More details can be found at the CourtHack website: http://courthack.org/.

There are also still a number of great sponsorship opportunities available. Go here for details.

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.

Machine Intelligence Analyses Judges

I have predicted for a very long time that the “market research” that started with consumers in the 90’s with the advent of the Internet would be coming to the courts. LexisNexis made it official this week in their press release “LexisNexis Integrates Lex Machina Legal Analytics into Lexis Advance Online Legal Information Solution”

What does this mean?  I will begin the discussion below.

CourtHack 2.0 Coming - Spring, 2017

Robot lawyers that help file court appeals and geo-positioning technology that alerts police officers when court orders are being served in their area are just two of the innovative technologies developed at NCSC’s first CourtHack in 2016. It was so successful that CourtHack 2.0 is being held April 22-23, 2017, at the New Jersey Law Center in New Brunswick. CourtHack aims to attract the brightest legal minds, technologists, entrepreneurs, and others to compete in a 30-hour hackathon to develop technologies to improve the administration of justice.  Court experts, including judges, court administrators, and court CIOs from across the country, participate as mentors and advisors.

This and That in Court Technology – January, 2017

Just like the National Football League (USA style pictured here), there is a lot of news regarding digital transformation.  The edition has notes on an American Bar Association report on E-Briefing, Nebraska appellate court E-filing, a Robot Lawyer application for parking tickets, a RAND corporation report on “Future Proofing” justice, commentary on potentially opening California legal publication, and a couple of technologies that need to be sent to the trash bin.

My Favorite Browser Extensions

The CTB has been delving into a lot of serious subjects lately.  So I thought it was time for a little fun.  In this post, I share a note about my favorite Google Chrome browser extensions.

Lastpass now Free but not Court Documents

A couple of news items to share regarding password managers and access to court documents.

ROSS – Artificial Intelligent Lawyer

IBM Watson - Home of ROSS

Earlier this week I heard about ROSS for the first time from the brilliant Snorri Ogata of the Los Angeles Superior Court at the NAPCO Conference in Cleveland.  So I had to learn more…

CSI Announces Intellidact LBX™ Machine Learning Technology

I am happy to share a press release from one of our leading court technology vendors this week.  CSI has been working with courts for more than 20 years in support and the development of automated redaction technology.  Their new system provides a powerful way for courts to bridge the gap between paper and electronic data.  Congratulations to our good friends in Orlando for this significant achievement.

The full press release follows below:

This and That in Court Technology – August 2016

In this edition of "This and That" we share E-Courts conference updates, US Federal Courts updating their E-filing rules, IJIS Institute Mid-Year Update Meeting, the ABA Future of Legal Services report, information regarding the new Microsoft Two-Step Authentication app, and last a handy home improvement app I recently used.

More Developments in Blockchain Technology and the Law

Blockchain technology or as it is also known as, “distributed ledger”, is the subject of a great deal of thinking and development this year.  We wrote about it earlier in the year and now we share some recent work being done at MIT Media Lab’s lawchain.org project.

Talking About Change: Getting from One Trapeze to Another

Guest author, Doug Leonard writes about change in this interesting post.

"It’s not so much that we’re afraid of change or so in love with the old ways, but it’s that place between that we fear. It is like being between two trapezes. It’s like Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There’s nothing to hold onto."
                                        --- Marilyn Ferguson, American Futurist

Another Technology to Plan For: Blockchain Contracts

As we all know, courts have to deal with contracts between parties.  And courts also very often have to verify the authenticity of information.

There is a lot of work going on using Blockchain database technology.  So it is time to learn about and plan for its use in the justice system.  We discuss below.

Some News Notes

A busy couple of weeks.  But we wanted to share three notes about “The Free Law Project” Judicial Database, Microsoft’s partnership with the Legal Service Corporation and Pro Bono Net, and some recent legal action involving digital evidence.