CTC 2009 Blog

Highlights of the upcoming CTC 2009 conference that will be held in Denver, Colorado from September 22-24, 2009 are being written about in the conference blog. 

US Federal Courts Highlight Technology Efforts

The April, 2009 edition of the US Federal Courts Newsletter, The Third Branch, is chock full of technology related articles.  They are:

• Court of Appeals Use E-Technology to Deliver Opinions
• Innovative IT Programs Link Automation with Court Business Processes four innovative technology projects funded by the Edwin L. Nelson Local Initiatives Program for fiscal year 2009.
• New Jersey E-Filing Forum Big Draw for Attorneys
• Courts Sign Up to Offer Juror-Friendly Webpage

Congratulations to the US Federal Courts for extending and taking advantage of new technology opportunities.

Abu Dhabi Introduces New CMS

According to an article in Gulfnews, on April 7, 2009 the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department announced the introduction of their new court case management system.  

An Interview with Federal Judge Rosemary M. Collyer

The March, 2009 edition of the US Federal Courts newsletter, The Third Branch, contains a very interesting interview with District Court Judge Rosemary M. Collyer who served as chair of the Judicial Conference Committee on Information Technology in 2008. 

E-Ink in the Courts

We have heard rumors here at NCSC headquarters in Williamsburg that there are judges who have started to use E-Ink technology based devices such as the Amazon Kindle to read and work with their electronic documents.  I remember reading about E-Ink technology in the early 1990’s during its initial development by Xerox PARC the Palo Alto Research Center lab.  E-Ink is a display screen technology that uses:

"millions of tiny microcapsules, about the diameter of a human hair. In one incarnation, each microcapsule contains positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles suspended in a clear fluid. When a negative electric field is applied, the white particles move to the top of the microcapsule where they become visible to the user.  "

For a picture of what this looks like and the rest of this explanatory article, click here.

So what is so great about this technology?  The answer is… persistence.  Once the screen image is updated by the tiny computer inside the device, it holds the image.  In other words, the image is persistent and doesn’t change.  This also means that the reader device uses very little power since it is not continually renewing the display; and thus it can be used for literally days if not weeks before a battery charge is required.  Reports are that the devices are both very lightweight, under 1 pound, and are easier on the eyes to read.

Now judges just don’t read documents, they interact with them.  The Amazon Kindle 2 has a keyboard and a note taking and bookmark capability.  A competitor company, iRex Technologies offers a larger screen device, the Digital Reader 1000S that allows handwritten notes to be added to the documents.  In addition, the devices can be linked via WiFi and the Internet to electronic book and newspapers services to download the latest novel or edition.

For one user’s experience using the Kindle click here.

For a good matrix of the available E-Ink readers in the USA click here.

Finally, please let us know your experience with these E-Ink devices and we’ll pass them along on the CTB.  Happy E-Reading!

Online Lecture: The Business of Public Access to Court Records

Recently we found an online video lecture and slideshow from the Princeton University Center for Information Technology Policy presented by Stephen Schultze from Harvard’s Berkman Center and Shubham Mukherjee, a third year law student on the amount of money that the US Federal Courts PACER system generates along with accompanying issues and activities.  The website intro states:

"As government documents are increasingly digitized and put online, two orthogonal approaches to distributing these documents have developed. Under one approach, the documents are made easily and freely accessible. In others, the government retains or introduces barriers to access that are inspired by traditional physical access. When these barriers are fee-based, the government can inadvertently create downstream monopolies or architectures of control over public information."

To enjoy the lecture go to:

http://citp.princeton.edu/events/lectures/stephen-schultze-and-shubham-mukherjee/?/

NIEM National Training Event Deadline Approaching

An e-mail blast dated March 10, 2009 announced the deadline for submissions in response to the Call for Papers and Participation for the 2009 NIEM National Training Event to be held at the Hilton Baltimore in Baltimore, Maryland from September 30 to October 2, 2009 is fast approaching.  Click here to download the Call for Papers PDF document.

Tweeting the Courtroom

A March 6, 2009 Associated Press story titled Twitter boosts public access to federal courtrooms reports on the use by a reporter of the: microblogging service Twitter to provide constant updates from a racketeering gang trial.

COSCA/NACM Joint Technology Committee Solicits Review

On March 9, 2009 the Joint Technology Committee JTC of the Conference of State Court Administrators COSCA and the National Association for Court Management NACM are soliciting review of, and comments on the following standards:

• LegalXML Electronic Court Filing 3.1 ECF 3.1 – This version is conformant with the GJXDM
• LegalXML Electronic Court Filing 4.0 ECF 4.0 – This version is conformant with the NIEM

And additional standards relating to Information Sharing for:

• Drug Court Test Request GJXDM
• Drug Court Test Results GJXDM
• Drug Court Case Folder NIEM
• Drug Court Test Request and Results NIEM
• Child Support Request for Remedy GJXDM
• Child Support Court Order GJXDM
• Child Welfare Dependency Petition NIEM
• Child Welfare Adjudication Order NIEM
• NCSC State Court Statistical Guide Submissions NIEM

For more information please download the Request for Comment and Review document PDF.  Comments are due on or before May 15, 2009.

Nevada Supreme Court Expands E-filing

A press release issued on February 19, 2009 announced that the Nevada Supreme Court would begin accepting electronic filing of documents for criminal cases effective on February 23rd.   The press release stated:

The new process is expected to save time and money for the Supreme Court, as well as for attorneys and their clients. No longer will attorneys with criminal appeal cases have to ship or deliver supporting documents to the Supreme Court.
In preparation for the move to e-filing, Supreme Court staff conducted training sessions this year and late last year for a total of nearly 200 attorneys and support staff at both ends of the state. Training was conducted for three days in Las Vegas, two days in Reno, and one day in Carson City. Training will also be offered at the Family Law Conference in Ely in March and a training DVD that includes information from the earlier presentations is in development.