Social Media and the Courts

The NCSC Knowledge and Information Services has collected a plethora of resources on the Social Media phenomena and how courts are adapting to and using Twitter, Facebook and similar services.  The web page can be found at:
http://www.ncsc.org/topics/media-relations/social-media-and-the-courts/resource-guide.aspx

Videoconference Appellate Argument Website

We recently ran across a nice web page by the public affairs TV channel, C-SPAN that was created for the Arar v. Ashcroft oral arguments before the US Federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals.  There are a couple of interesting technical presentation ideas presented on the web page.

First, they have created a time-synchronization presentation between the written and video transcript that makes it easy to navigate through the argument.

Second, now Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor, is participating via a videoconference link.  The presiding judge has some kind of signal from her when she needs to interrupt to ask a question.

The web page can be viewed at Arar v. Ashcroft argument web page at C-SPAN.

Lawyer Uses YouTube for Video Depositions

Thanks to our good friend Jim Drubert in Montgomery County, Ohio we learned of an attorney using YouTube to store the video portion of their electronic pleading.  According to the Maryland Daily Record in an article published on May 17, 2010 the Louisiana Lawyer:

"John Denenea, Jr. has essentially incorporated the video deposition into his opposition to summary judgment. As most lawyers know, a video deposition can be much more effective than the transcribed version because the viewer can observe witness behavior, including those long pauses before answering questions that do not appear on the transcribed version."

The article: Filing civil pleadings on YouTube contains links to the pleadings and one of the videos.

Alaska Issues RFP

On May 12, 2010 the following announcement was made.

The Alaska Court System is soliciting for an Appellate Court Case Management System. Sealed proposals will be accepted in accordance with terms and conditions of the RFP until 2:30 p.m. AST Monday, June 28, 2010.

Details are posted on the State of Alaska Online Public Notice website.

US Federal Courts Are Busy!

The April 2010 edition of The Third Branch US Federal Courts newsletter contains four very interesting court IT related articles.  They are:

• E-Pro Se Bolsters Access to Court
• Committee Suggest Guidelines for Juror Use of Electronic Communication Technologies
• Local IT Initiatives Receive Grants
• New Look, New URL for Supreme Court Website

Canadian Forum on Court Technology Scheduled

Our friends at the Canadian Centre for Court Technology has announced they will be hosting their first Canadian Forum on Court Technology in Ottawa from September 22-23, 2010.  They are listing twenty-two session in three tracks and the NCSC is happy to be a supporter of the event.  For more information see the conference website at: http://www.ccct-cctj.ca/forum/en/

Online Traffic Payments System in Cook County

Public Safety IT magazine published an article in their March/April, 2010 issue on "Paying traffic tickets online in Cook County, IL".  Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Hon. Dorothy Brown states that:

"It enables individuals to rapidly and conveniently respond to their traffic violations and, if they so choose, pay associated fines and other charges safely and securely on their home computers."

California Issues Report on Statewide CCMS Project

The Government Technology magazine website posted an article on April 26, 2010 titled: California Court Case Management System Needs a Cost Cap, Review Finds.

The link to the complete CIO report in PDF is: http://www.cio.ca.gov/pdf/CCMS_Final_Report.pdf

All-In-One PCs Cut Power Consumption

The fact that many court clerks offices and chambers are cramped for space does not come as a surprise to those who suffer in those conditions every day.  The addition of a full sized desktop computer, especially when full sized CRT displays were used did not help the situation. But during the past year a new form factor for standard PCs has been introduced by the manufacturers, the All-In-One computer.  Of course this is not new for Apple iMac users, but for the rest of us, this is a good development.

What is meant by an All-In-One computer?  Simply it means that the parts of the computer; the hard disk, DVD/CD drive, processor, and memory are placed behind the display screen resulting in one compact package.  In addition, many All-In-One computers have touch-screen capability that could potentially help to speed data entry with the proper programming.

But why else am I writing about this?  It is because the All-In-One computer format is also a green machine in that it uses much less electrical power than the standard desktop computer.  The All-In-Ones I looked at used a 65 watt or lower power supply.  In contrast, a survey of currently available desktop PCs showed they used from a low of 220, to a high of 450 watts of power each.  Multiply this by 25, 50, or 100 computers this turns into a significant amount of power and heat.

If you are interested in more detailed information; I found the following review article for this style of machine from last fall on the Computer Shopper website.  It provides a quick overview of the All-In-One machines that were available at the time.

http://www.computershopper.com/back-to-school/2009/reviewed-nine-all-in-one-desktop-pcs-for-students

US Federal Courts Update Public Access Policies

The March, 2010 edition of The Third Branch Federal Court newsletter contains an interesting article: Judicial Conference Approves Steps to Improve Public Access.  The article describes several actions to decrease the cost of using their PACER public access system and to make digital audio recordings available. The article also noted that in 2009:

"PACER received more than 360 million requests for electronic access to information from the over 33 million federal cases that have documents online."