Federal Court Visiting Judges Helped by Electronic Files

The US Federal Court newsletter, "The Third Branch" has published an article titled Visiting Judges Take Their Work On The Road in which it notes:

"Courts that don't use visiting judges usually cite a lack of clerical support and/or space. However, the use of Case Management/Electronic Case Files in the district courts has made it even easier for visiting judges in terms of handling paperwork. And with CM/ECF, a visiting judge may not have to travel to a court to offer assistance."

So there's another reason for state courts to break the addiction to paper.

Washington Technology Magazine Recognizes XML Work

Washington Technology Magazine recently published an article titled "Integrators Woo Criminal Justice Work" that highlights several GJXDM based projects. The article also mentions several jurisdictions and companies that are involved in creating these systems.

E-Courts 2006 Conference Website is Online

The E-Courts 2006 conference website is now available. The fifth edition of the E-Courts conference will be held from December 11-13, 2006 in Las Vegas, Nevada. This year's focus will be on organizational transformation that we call "Digital Opportunity" as well as cool new technology. This is the one court technology event that you will not want to miss this year.

Michigan's Electronic Statistical Reporting System

While doing some research recently we found that the Michigan AOC has implemented an electronic statistical report submission system. We contacted them and received the following excellent article from Ms. Laura Hutzel, Research and Policy Analyst, Michigan Supreme Court,
State Court Administrative Office:

Michigan trial courts use a web-based application, the Caseload Reporting System (CRS), to report caseload data to the State Court Administrative Office (SCAO). This secure application assists courts with caseload reporting and provides standard output reports.

Trial courts are required to submit a wealth of caseload data to SCAO. The courts report the number of cases pending at the beginning of the year, the number of new filings each quarter, the number of reopened cases each quarter, and the number of cases disposed by different methods each quarter. 

These figures are reported for every case type. In addition, circuit courts submit juvenile case statistics, the number of juveniles under supervision, child protective statistics, and the number of children who are court wards. Probate courts also submit the number of people with guardians and conservators, the number of active estates and trusts, and the number of second or continuing petitions for mental commitments. Each trial judge is required to submit annual disposed case age and pending case age reports through CRS. Based on the reported data, CRS calculates the number of cases pending at the end of each quarter.

CRS contains many features to assist courts with reporting caseload data. Using SCAO-issued usernames and passwords, authorized court employees can access CRS. The chief judge or court administrator can use CRS to electronically add or remove authorization for their employees. In the secure environment, authorized employees can electronically upload or manually enter caseload data. They can also view reports that identify missing, incomplete, or inconsistent data. Using CRS, users can e-mail a question to the Help Desk, read a list of frequently asked questions and answers, or download the reporting manuals and instructions. SCAO employees can use CRS to send reminder e-mail messages to courts that have not yet submitted or verified their caseload data. Chief judges log in to CRS and verify when the annual data for their courts is ready for publication. Upon receiving the chief judge's verification, CRS automatically sends a confirmation e-mail to the chief judge.

CRS contains eleven different output reports of the reported caseload data. Throughout the year, authorized users can obtain a summary report that consolidates caseload data into general categories, such as civil, criminal, and domestic relations. They can also obtain a full detail report which lists each case type. Summary and detail reports for all state trial courts are compiled for the Michigan Supreme 

Court's Annual Report and posted on the public website at:

http://www.courts.michigan.gov/scao/resources/publications/reports/statistics.htm

Case age reports are under development and will show the extent to which each judge met recommended time guidelines.

Indiana Releases Case Management System PNCO

On February 13, 2006, the Indiana Supreme Court published a Public Notice of Contracting Opportunities (PNCO) seeking proposals which would provide Indiana courts and clerks with a 21st Century Case Management System (CMS).

North Dakota Courts Website Supports PDAs

Ms. Anne Skove of our NCSC Knowledge and Information Services group spotted the North Dakota Court's website that allows downloads to Personal Digital Assistants, also known as PDAs. A PDA is often referred to as a Palm, Treo, or Pocket PC. North Dakota allows downloads of information from the Supreme Court Home Page, Supreme Court Opinions, Supreme Court Calendar and Briefs, and Lawyer Directory.

Courtroom Technology Listing

Here's a "quick to implement" idea. The Federal District Court in Albuquerque, New Mexico has posted a description of the various audio, visual, and computer technology that is available in their courtrooms. The quick reference grid is very easy to understand. Great idea!

Scott Fairholm Takes Policy Assignment

Scott Fairholm has taken on a new assignment as National Technology Policy Advisor with the National Center for State Courts. He will be focusing on national court technology policy issues including federal information sharing standards, coordination with Global and NIEM related activities and the development of a justice reference service oriented architecture.

A New Year for NCSC Technology

We are pleased to announce several new faces and changes in responsibilities for technology activities within the NCSC, all aimed at enhancing services to the court community while simultaneously bolstering the voice of courts in federal justice information technology initiatives.

Terrie Bousquin of Santa Fe, New Mexico joined as Director of Technology Services on January 1st. Terrie comes to the Center from four years as a partner and co-owner of Greacen Associates, LLC, following six years as the judiciary CIO for New Mexico.

Jim Harris of Orlando, Florida, joined as Senior Court Technology Associate. Jim has most recently been serving as a technical advisor for the Orange County Clerk of Courts in Orlando, Florida. He was previously Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Court Specialists, Inc., a court case management product vendor.

Shirley Sutherland began as the Administrative Manager for Technology Services in late 2005.

Tom Carlson was promoted to Court Technology Associate and among other things serves as the primary technical representative from the court community on the XML Structure Task Force (XSTF) for the GJXDM as well as on the NIEM Technical Architecture Group (NTAG). Tom was responsible for developing the Wayfarer tool for navigating the GJXDM. It is currently available on the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) website and on the NCSC website.

Technology Services has responsibility for analyses, recommendations, and support to the major national court technology groups and policy bodies, including the Joint Technology Committee (JTC), the Chief Information Technology Officers' Consortium (CITOC), COSCA, and NACM. Through its work with national and international courts, justice partners, and other NCSC divisions, Technology Services identifies, synthesizes, models, and tests court technology and associated business process, data, design, and implementation alternatives with potential applicability to the wider court community. Technology Services is the primary NCSC resource for creating and vetting XML solutions for court information sharing and for court technology standards development, implementation, and information dissemination. Technology Services presents major national technology educational and conference opportunities for courts and provides Help Desk assistance for GJXDM related questions from courts.

Tablet PCs Invade NCSC Technology Division

Like the old movie The Blob, a new type of computer has taken over our group here at the NCSC; the Tablet PC. Every technology professional in our group now uses either a convertible or slate style Tablet PC. For those of you who don't know, a convertible Tablet PC is similar to a laptop except that there is a hinge that let's one flip the screen around to lay flat across the keyboard. Our group currently has Tablet PCs from IBM (Lenovo), Toshiba, HP, and Fujitsu.

Some of the advantages to this format of computer that we have already found are first, one can use the computer on cramped airline seats. By flipping the screen ( Toshiba currently has a short commercial on their website that shows the flip ) one can use the pen to read, write, and work with applications like e-mail. A second advantage is that the convertible Tablet PC is a full featured laptop. So when I am in the office, I can use it with the keyboard and mouse as I am doing now to write this article. A third advantage is the ability to use the pen to take and save handwritten notes. I have Microsoft OneNote 2003 installed on my Tablet PC and one nice feature is continual file saving. When I write a note, it is automatically saved on the machine's hard drive; no more, click file, click save. Further, we recently saw Colorado Courts CIO, Bob Roper's Tablet PC where he has their entire judicial Bench Book organized in OneNote. We are planning to have Bob and a couple of Colorado Judges demonstrate their systems in December at the E-Courts 2006 Conference. Finally, we have found that the handwriting recognition is very good. Interestingly, for me it seems is more accurate in deciphering my left-hand cursive handwriting versus writing in block letters. And, OneNote lets me be able to search my handwritten notes even if they haven't been converted to text. In general the Technology group is just now learning what we can do with our machines; but from our first impressions, we are happy with out acquisitions. For a good website that collects user's impressions on the hardware, software, and accessories related to Tablet PC's see the Tablet PC Buzz website.