Federal Courts Expand Access to Information

The US Federal Courts July, 2007 edition of The Third Branch newsletter describes recent enhancements to the PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) system.  The article, "Access to Court Information Ever Expanding" notes that "(c)ustomers of the federal court's" PACER "system now have access without charge, to district court written opinions".

NIEM 2.0 Released

The full press release:

DOJ and DHA Announce the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) 2.0 Release

WASHINGTON- The U.S. Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS) announced today the release of the 2.0 production version of the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) and its supporting tools.  NIEM is the basis for allowing multiple communities of interest to share, exchange, accept, and translate information needed by constituents.

The development of NIEM is a joint effort among DOJ, DHS, and subject-matter experts from the justice, public safety, law enforcement, homeland security and private sectors. Designed by experienced practitioners, governed by participating stakeholders, and driven by leadership from DOJ and DHS, NIEM is developing, disseminating, and supporting enterprise-wide information exchange standards and processes that enable jurisdictions to effectively share critical information in emergency situations, as well as support the day-to-day operations of agencies throughout the nation.

The 2.0 release was driven by practitioner requirements through a well-defined collaborative process.  A major focus of this release was to harmonize the data definitions and usage across multiple domains.  In addition, NIEM was remodeled to remove duplication, complexity, and ambiguity and includes new code lists and types.  It also contains updates to existing code lists and resolution of about 30 issues documented by NIEM users.

This release also contains new and updated tools that will enable users to more easily use NIEM and produce and implement their information exchanges.  These include: the Subset Schema Generation Tool (SSGT), which helps users develop the components of an exchange and allows them to choose which version of NIEM with which to work and the NIEM Migration Asset Tool, which assists in the migration of previously developed wantlists to NIEM 2.0.

Training and technical assistance are available to facilitate the adoption, implementation, and use of this groundbreaking model.  More information regarding NIEM and a link to download the 2.0 version can be found at www.niem.gov. 

For further information, contact Paul Wormeli,  Chairman of the NIEM Communications and Outreach Committee, at paul.wormeli@ijis.org.

Montgomery County, Ohio Issues E-filing RFP

Montgomery County, Ohio is requesting proposals for an electronic case filing system for the Common Pleas Court, General Division and the Clerk of Courts.  Proposals are due on August 22, 2007.  A copy of the RFP can be downloaded after registering with the Montgomery County Purchasing department at:
http://www.mcohio.org/RZ/RZ_bidsummary.asp

Global Justice Information Sharing Conference Slated

The US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance will be presenting the Global Justice Information Sharing Conference in Chicago, Illinois from August 21-23, 2007.  Included in this years conference are updates on the development of the NIEM and many case studies on GJXDM implementations.  Complete information regarding the conference including agenda and accommodation information is now available on the conference website.

Government Computer News Highlights NIEM

In its June 18, 2007 edition, Government Computer News highlighted the recent National Information Exchange Model version 2.0 release in an article titled "Information exchange model at the next level"

Garland Texas Municipal Court Goes Paperless

The City of Garland, Texas issued a press release announcing their paperless municipal court project.  The release stated:
"The staff now processes citations from initial input to final disposition entirely online.  No need to track down files among tens of thousands of documents, or dismiss cases because of missing documents.  All case information is available at each clerk’s desktop."
This system will be highlighted as part of a CTC-10 session titled "Workflow: The Next Step of Case Management System Evolution" hosted by National Center for State Courts Senior Technology Consultant, John Matthias in Tampa, Florida in October, 2007.

Federal Courts Wiki and Post Audio Recordings

The June, 2007 edition of "The Third Branch" newsletters from the US Federal Courts contains two technology related articles. The first article concerns the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Wiki Practioners Guide project. The court "posted its Practitioners Handbook to the web and opened it up for revisions by members of the bar, no holds barred". The second project noted in the newsletter described the pilot project to post digital audio recordings of court proceedings online in three bankruptcy and two district trial courts.

Court Programs Recognized

In May, 2007 the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation recently recognized two court programs as part of their innovation in government awards program. The first program was the Electronic Court Records project in King County Superior Court, Washington. The Ash Institutes website stated that the "(e)lectronic Court Records gives court case file users electronic access. Scanning and e-filing have eliminated paper files, resulting in faster processing, desktop access to documents and better security." The second program recognized was the Juvenile Justice Continuum of Services and Graduated Sanctions program in the 6th Judicial District of New Mexico. The website stated that "(t)he Juvenile Justice Continuum of Services and Graduated Sanctions is composed of an integrated service network of juvenile programs, which have recorded a 70% decline in delinquent offenses since its inception.

Release Candidate 2 for NIEM 2.0 Published

A message from the NIEM Communication and Outreach Committee:  


"Based on feedback received from release candidate 1 of NIEM 2.0, a second release candidate has been posted to www.niem.gov for stakeholder review. All interested parties are requested to respond with comments no later than COB July 16th. Assuming that no major problems are encountered, the NIEM Leadership Team is planning on releasing the production version of NIEM 2.0 on or about July 30th. Tools for schema generation and migration assistance should have completed beta testing by July 30th and will be accessible at www.niem.gov at the same time as the release of the 2.0 model. Please submit your comments on RC2 directly to the National Information Sharing Standards help desk at nisshelp@ijis.org."

Minnesota Judicial Branch Integration Services

Bob Hanson, CIO from the Minnesota Judicial Branch reports the following on their Judicial Branch Integration services website and other efforts on data sharing.

"The site is organized around data integration services for justice partners and interested parties. The site includes a catalog of "notifications" and "submittals" to both get and put data to the state wide case management system. The system is event enabled and at a case event, data triggers fire and activate assemblage of XML messages containing data pertinent to the case event, this messages are " published" for partners to consume The site includes test messages, responses, schemas, ...etc. The schemas were developed over time and are not complete matches for GJXDM/NIEM.  They are tailored to provide the necessary performance required to operate a real time exchange with court partners computer systems as well as filling gaps dealing with the civil portions of the courts business responsibility."

"Below in the introduction paragraphs from the website (http://www.mncourts.gov/is) that describe the Branch strategy in getting justice data to the right party in the right place at the right time."

Court Integration Services is an enterprise-wide strategy of the Minnesota Judicial Branch to make court case data available for electronic consumption by applications of other justice entities.  To facilitate data consumption, Integration Services electronically publishes court case event data as case events occur.  Other justice entities may subscribe to consume select publications of case event and party data—through messaging technology.  Because court case data is published using XML, messages are easily consumed by message-enabled applications designed or modified for computer-to-computer transactions—without human intervention.   No “custom views” are needed to satisfy specific agency needs.  Instead, Integration Services provides the data and the XML schema, so consuming entities can take, use, and transform data formats to match the needs of their applications.

The publication of court case data in XML and use of messaging is a first and critical step toward allowing other justice information systems to consume court case data and build needed integrations.  Integration Services’ messaging technology provides for the timely publishing of court case data, required by justice entities to perform necessary functions. The reduction of human involvement in the passing of data from entity to entity will improve accuracy and minimize time delays in the delivery of accurate information to the right place at the right time.

The Integration Services strategy is bi-directional and includes capacity to receive electronic data from other justice entities to initiate court transactions, such as filing cases and scheduling hearings.  Historically, such transactions have been initiated through the manual presentation of information to the court.  Integration Services provides the means to transition from manual presentation to electronic presentation of the same information—to initiate the same transactions.

Integration Services strategy is focused on computer application to computer application exchange and sharing of data in near real time; it does not provide direct “viewing” capabilities.  However, viewing capabilities are offered through other court applications and access points. The strategy also recognizes this form of data exchange will co-exist with traditional exchange methods.  Some entities may not be able to adapt business applications to consume messages.  Likewise, low volumes of data consumption may not make such an investment cost effective.

Integration Services serves the Priorities & Strategies for Minnesota’s Judicial Branch:  Focus on the Future (FY2007-FY2009), which includes the objectives of: i) establishing an efficient, reliable, comprehensive case management system that meets the needs of court users, judges and court staff, justice partners, and the state judicial system as a unified whole; and ii) developing a highly efficient, accurate process for the initiation of criminal and juvenile cases.  Through Integration Services, justice entities have the opportunity to electronically consume published case data, and both the courts and other justice entities can benefit from the electronic initiation of case transactions.