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.

Hamilton County Indiana Leads E-Filing Implementation

Hamilton County Courthouse, Noblesville, IN

They will be the first county in the state to accept electronic court filings.

User Interface Changes – Are They Worth It?

I read a terrific blog post last month regarding the problems that result when websites or computer applications change their user interfaces.  We discuss below.

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.

Upcoming JTC Webinar on eBench and Judicial Tools

The Joint Technology Committee (JTC) of COSCA, NACM and the NCSC will host a webinar on Thursday, August 20, 2015 at 2:00pm EDT.  The topic will be "eBench and Dashboards – Making a Case for Judicial Tools".

Windows 10 – Very good so far, but be careful

I did my first Windows 10 computer upgrade yesterday.  And I learned some things to watch out for.

Legacy Systems, Cost Savings, Yes… But the Risk?

Many courts use very old computer software and hardware systems.  They save a lot of money doing that; but there are dangers that we discuss below.

New York Courts Win 2015 Legaltech Innovation Award

Program Assisting Domestic Violence Victims Winner, Innovative Use of Technology in a Pro Bono Project.

JTC Electronic Court Records Webinar Redux

The Joint Technology Committee (JTC) of COSCA and NACM recently conducted a webinar on "Developing an Electronic Court Records Disposition and Preservation Plan."  Huge demand and technical difficulties encountered the first time around prevented many from connecting to the webinar.  So the JTC is presenting this webinar again this Thursday, July 23, 2015 at 1:00pm EDT.

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.

CTC 2015 Keynote - The Innovation Imperative

CTC’s keynote speaker will be Mark Britton, Founder and CEO of Avvo, the world's largest community for legal guidance and services. Britton's keynote, which will open CTC 2015 on Tuesday morning, September 22, 2015 will address "The Innovation Imperative." Britton will argue how the justice system can more effectively embrace innovation. Britton will explore how innovation has transformed services in many other industries—medical, transportation, food, and travel—and says it's time for the justice system step up its pace and develop systems that foster innovation. You won't want to miss this inspiring and motivating opening session that will set the tone for three great days of learning and networking.

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”.

Macomb County Clerk and Uber Partner to Deliver Jurors to Courthouse

Via press release, Macomb County, MI (June 30, 2015)

"In Macomb County, a jury summons now comes with a driver, providing on-demand transportation to and from the Courthouse. Macomb County Jurors will receive an Uber code good for a $20 ride each way or $40 round trip to and from the courthouse.  In most cases, the code will cover the full cost of a ride.  The ride must start or end at the Macomb County Circuit Court Building in Mount Clemens, and the cost will depend on the distance from a juror’s home.

Professor Frederic Lederer Honored

Photo courtesy of Stephen Hansen

We were very happy to learn that NCSC/W&M Law School Courtroom 21 project co-founder, Professor Fred Lederer was honored by the Judge Advocates Foundation on May 26 with the Chief Justice John Marshall Lifetime Achievement Award, the Foundation's highest honor. Lederer received the award at a dinner in Arlington, Va., sponsored by the Foundation and the Judge Advocates Association. The Judge Advocates General of all of the armed forces and numerous other present and retired senior officers attended the event.

"We are fortunate that Fred's love of the law and interest in technology have combined to drive the development and implementation of legal technology worldwide," Dunn said.  In addition to transforming the law school's McGlothlin Courtroom into "a laboratory courtroom of the future," she said he "anticipated and helped create many of the innovations in legal technology."

Dunn shared Lederer's wide-ranging endeavors with the audience. In addition to being a "go-to speaker," he has participated in more than 300 international forums. He also has written dozens of articles on legal technology, military law, criminal procedure and evidence. He has trained "generations of law students and practitioners in the use of courtroom technology."  Judges, business executives, and courtroom professionals from around the globe seek out his expertise. "Because of him, Williamsburg is a world legal technology mecca," she said."

The full press release is available here.  Congratulations Fred!

Even More This and That in Court Tech – June, 2015

2,500 year old Babylonian clay tablet

Remember that CTC-2015 is only three months away.  See http://ctc2015.org for more.  This week's post notes the CITOC Innovation Awards nominations, IJIS, PDF, NAJIS conferences, South Africa recognizes E-signatures, Michigan state court videoconferencing, M-Disc, and a funny from Harvard Business Review.

USB Flash Drive Insecurity and Video Evidence

Recently there was a discussion among CITOC members regarding the increasing use of video from a variety of sources in courtrooms (including law enforcement patrol cars and body cameras).  One solution suggested was to have this evidence delivered by USB Flash Drive for replay in the courtroom because the “Stick” could be left with the court for evidence.  This may or may not be a good solution; we discuss below…

This and That in Court Technology – June, 2015

Time for another “This and That” roundup of court technology news.

Rwanda Court Pre-Filing E-Filing System

Chief Justice of Rwanda, Prof. Sam Rugege

Earlier this year I visited the courts in Kigali, Rwanda.  They showed me their E-filing system that I didn’t really understand until now.

Court Case Management Systems Part 17: Dashboards

Dashboards are a “particular means of communication” – Stephen Few

In this part of our ongoing CCMS series we will discuss dashboard functionality.  To do this we will split the discussion into two parts.  In the first part we will discuss court administration/ management dashboards.  And in the second part we will talk about dashboards that may be able to facilitate judicial caseload management.

(Information and Dashboard Design – Second Edition - http://www.perceptualedge.com/library.php )

JTC Webinar on E-Records Disposition and Preservation

The Joint Technology Committee (JTC) of COSCA and NACM will host a webinar on Wednesday, June 24, 2015 at 1:00pm EDT.  The topic will be "Developing an Electronic Court Records Disposition and Preservation Plan."

Vermont Seeks Case Management Systems Information

The Vermont Office of the Court Administrator has issued a Request for Information for a "Next Generation Case Management System".

Case Management Global Summit

My colleague, John Matthias and I will be speaking at the BPM Case Management Global Summit conference at the Ritz-Carlson Hotel in Pentagon City, Virginia (Arlington) on June 22, 2015.  The full conference will run from the 22-24th.

Government employees can attend Days 1 & 2 of the Summit for free! Days 1 & 2 plus an all-day Workshop on Day 3 is only $495. Register using your .gov or other government-based to receive the special rate.

Georgia Supreme Court Committee Issues E-Filing Design RFP'

On May 15, 2015 the Supreme Court of Georgia Statewide Judiciary Civil E-filing Steering Committee has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP)
for an independent statewide review and design recommendation for a single sign-on E-filing portal.

The project is scheduled to start in June, 2015 and be completed prior to August, 2015.

Click here for the full PDF proposal.

Proposals are due by 5:00 PM EDT on Monday, June 1, 2015

Smart Forms – Helping the Self-Represented, Helping the Courts

One of the things that we teach here at the NCSC is that court internet web services need to be oriented to the user’s requirements. And, in turn control how information is presented for adjudication. Smart Forms provide one successful approach to address this need.

This and That in Court Tech - May, 2015

In this months article, a commentary on the ABA Blue Sky Agenda, Texas E-filing rollout data, social media training ordered for a judge, Ravel Law launches federal judge analytics, NIEM 10th anniversary, and a McMillan scholarship reminder for CTC-2015.

CITOC Seminar on Electronic Criminal Environment

The Court Information Technology Officer Consortium (CITOC) Education Sub-Committee is pleased to host this webinar for CITOC members on Friday, May 15, 2015 at 1:00pm EST.  The topic will be Electronic Criminal Environment and will be hosted by Brett Howard from the Orange County Superior Court.

File Hosting Services and E-Filing

Clouds over Arusha, Tanzania

Many do not know that the LegalXML Electronic Court Filing (ECF) standard allows for “links” to be submitted.  We discuss below:

Nebraska Shares Court Case Data Protection Rules

There has been a recent discussion regarding how courts are dealing with information privacy issues for their document repositories.  The Nebraska courts have posted their criminal and civil case court rules governing these documents on two web pages.  And Ms. Jennifer Rasmussen, their CIO notes that “(t)hese rules have allowed us to make court document images available online since 2008 and are working well.  In addition, we did a spot check in 2013 to see if attorneys were complying and found very few instances where they were not.”

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.

JTC Resource Bulletin on Electronic Records Preservation and Disposition . . .

Our court’s case records are finally all electronic (well, almost) and storage is cheap and fast – so we won’t ever need to purge case records again, right? Well, you may want to reconsider if that’s what you’re thinking. A new Joint Technology Committee (JTC) Resource Bulletin, “Developing an Electronic Records Preservation and Disposition Plan,” explores a myriad of issues relating to electronic records retention. It builds on a 2012-2013 Policy Paper published by the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA), “To Protect and Preserve: Standards for Maintaining and Managing 21st Century Court Records.”

Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) Data Exchange Working Group Reports Draft Standard

NCSC Principal Court Management Consultant, Dale Kasparek shares work that is ongoing in support of court compliance of CDL disposition reporting via data exchange and more in today’s CTB post

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.

CTC 2015 Registration Begins with a One Day Sale..Monday April 13th

The Court Technology Conference (CTC) 2015 will take place September 22–24 in Minneapolis, and its education program and exhibit hall will attract judges, court administrators, court technologists, court managers, and other justice-system professionals from across the country and across the world.  CTC 2015 online registration opens Monday, April 13 and for that one day only registration is steeply discounted to $600!  

The CTC 2015 education program will focus on six tracks: e-Bench and Judicial Tools; Electronic Court Records Management; the Management of Court IT; the Judiciary in a Virtual, Mobile and Social World; Access to Justice; and the Courthouse of the Future. Go to ctc2015.org on April 13 to get our best deal on CTC registration.  No special code is required, but this is a one-day sale, so mark your calendar!

The link again is: http://www.ctc2015.org/

A CCMS Smart Document Receipt Concept

Recently I have been working on the concept of a “smart receipt” that would be generated by a CCMS for either E-filing or “in-person” filing.  I share my ideas in the article below…

E-Filing Project Updates Noted

We learned about several electronic court filing projects this week thanks to Mark Schwartz at OneLegal, Bonnie Carver at File & Serve Express and Google News.  The projects involve courts in California, Georgia, New Jersey, Ohio, and Texas.

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.

New JTC paper makes case for judicial tools

Judicial Dashboard screenshot, courtesy Wisconsin Court System

The Joint Technology Committee (JTC) has released a new resource bulletin, “Making the Case for Judicial Tools.”

Standards for Jury Management System Requirements

The Joint Technology Committee has developed a national standard for jury management.functional requirements that serve as a great starting point for courts developing or acquiring a new Jury Management System.

This and That in Court Tech – A Frozen February, 2015 Edition

Our regular compilation of news and notes regarding the world or court technology follows.  In this edition we note the new CTC 2015 topic survey, Pennsylvania online payments, password technology replacement, online dispute resolution recommendations in the UK, more on court related scamming activity, more AmCad fallout, and the ServeCon conference.

Electronic Briefs Explained

Probate Court Judge Don Wilkes,
Ms. Lisa Joyner and Ms. Kristie Pope
Candler Co., Georgia

Attorney Ms. Elizabeth “Ellie” Neiberger wrote a terrific article for the Florida Law Journal (February, 2015 Volume 89, No. 2, page 46) titled “Judge-Friendly Briefs in the Electronic Age”.  She starts the article with the advice “(t)he golden rule for any type of writing is ‘write for the reader’.  Appellate judges read a lot, and how they read is changing.”

2014 CITOC Innovation Award – North Carolina Electronic Protective Order System

The following article provides some of the project details for the CITOC award winner submitted by the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts.  In their submission they wrote that:

“On June 24, 2013, Alamance County became the first county in North Carolina to implement the Electronic Protective Order System (EPOS) which greatly increases the safety of domestic violence victims and allows for streamlined, efficient processing of domestic violence orders initiated from a secure, non-public remote location.

CITOC Announces Innovation Awards

The national Court Information Technology Officers Consortium (CITOC) and the Conference of State Court Administrators honored the following courts with awards in December, 2014 during their annual conference.

•  Innovation in Business Process Award 2014: Superior Court of California, Orange County

•  Innovation in Technology Award 2014: North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts

The Hagan Manifesto on PDF's

Used with permission from Ms. Hagan

Our favorite Law Design blogger, Ms. Margaret Hagan, has posted her “short manifesto” on “Law’s PDF Problem”.  I agree with her observations and offer some additional commentary.

Ms. Hagan is doing some excellent work in examining how legal systems have been designed (or not designed) over the past few years.  Her recent post looks at the problem of legal (including court) information being “buried in PDF’s”.  She notes:

The Courtroom Tablet - Microsoft Surface Hub

 

Image from Microsoft

One of the most interesting thing that was announced by Microsoft earlier this week was the Surface Hub 84-inch 4K interactive display (there will be a 55” size also).  Talk about a tablet!  This is one device that has the potential for everyone in the courtroom to see and use. 

This article from Engadget.com describes the systems features.  It includes a the pressure sensitive stylus that allows the user to change colors and line thickness, built-in cameras with Skype for Business video and desktop conferencing, and the ability to wirelessly connect with any “Miracast-enabled device” so that when Windows10 is released, one will be able to download images from the screen to save for archive/evidence.

It was reported that it will be available later in 2015.

This and That in Court Technology - January 2015

A new CTB template and other court technology news is noted in this month's post.

New Court Technology Bulletin Template

You might notice that the CTB looks different.  In celebration of its fifth year as a Google Blogger blog we decided the go with a new cleaner look.  There is a new blog masthead thanks to one of our talented NCSC graphics designers, Elizabeth Maddox.   We have also gathered all of our links and resources together on one page so that there is a “one-stop” place to find things that are useful to the court technologist.  We hope you like it.

2015 – The Year We Can Talk about Using Automation the Way Judges (and People) Actually Work

Lenovo Yoga AnyPen

Apologies for the long title, but it is becoming clear that automation has finally caught up to the way judges actually work, by speaking and writing with a pen.

Internet Access to Court Records Upsets Canadians

According to an article in The Globe and Mail newspaper, “(o)ver the past year, close to 100 people have complained to the Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII), after coming across legal decisions that mention their names through Google searches.  The rulings are public information, but most are shocked to see the details of their court cases – often family law, criminal or immigration matters – on the Internet for anyone to read.”

Supreme Court of the US Chief Justice Notes Technology in Year-End Report

In his tenth report, Chief Justice John Roberts focused on information technology in the US Courts (PDF).