This and That in Court Tech – May 2021

 

We have been saving a lot (and I mean “a lot) of interesting items to share in recent weeks.  We have news about court data analytics in California, an academic paper questioning the use of arrest data in policy development, a new justice index ranking report for USA courts, a report on Fines and Fees policies, the application of microeconomics for policy development, the NIEM JSON Specification, Version 5.0 release candidate 2, Ohio Court News on sealed records, England and Wales reports on the results of their divorce online system, applying the PDF A-4 standard for permanent digital records, and an excellent Tiny Chat.

Florida E-Filing Portal Celebrates 10th Anniversary

 

We learned from our friends earlier this week that the Florida courts are celebrating the 10^th Anniversary of their E-filing Portal program.  We will start with some history thanks to the summary they wrote in this year’s annual report or, if you wish, they have posted a three-minute history summary video online here.

“Fixing” Criminal Justice Data and My Alternative Approach

 

Last month, the Arnold Ventures group released a report titled “We Need Criminal Justice Data That Doesn’t Exist.  Here’s How the Biden Administration Can FixIt.”

This is a subject near and dear to me as I have been working on much of this for a long time.  I agree with many parts of the report.  However, I was disappointed to see that the full report missed many standards and frameworks that have been previously built?  More below...

CTC 2021 First Announcements

 

For CTC 2021, we're taking a hybrid approach to the Center's premier court technology conference. You can attend online or join us in Columbus, Ohio, from September 28–29, 2021.

While we don't have all the details ironed out, we're looking forward to hosting attendees no matter how you choose to attend.

A 50 State Court Covid-19 Operations List

  

The Justia legal information company has posted a compendium of state court Covid-19 operations in all 50 states.

They write that “State court systems across the country have significantly altered their operations in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Many courts initially limited proceedings to only the most essential and urgent matters, such as arraignments and restraining order hearings."

"While most jurisdictions are beginning to resume at least some of their normal operations, courts often are still striving to conduct as many proceedings remotely as possible. Jury trials are suspended or limited in some locations, although most states at least have planned strategies for resuming them.”

Click here to access the guide.

Congratulations to Justia for providing this useful resource. 

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Also thank you to the US Federal Courts news for posting the picture of Chief Judge James K. Bredar wearing a plastic face shield and sit behind plexiglass when jury trials resume in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland that we show above.

https://www.uscourts.gov/news/2020/08/20/courts-restore-operations-covid-19-creates-new-normal

 

Announcement: IJIS eXCHANGE - Virtual Summit Series: Data is the Key

 

The IJIS Institute has scheduled two virtual Zoom seminars for Tuesday, June 15, 2021.  They write:

"From incident to final resolution and beyond, every action our courts take relies on accurate, complete, and timely data to best-inform decisions about people, cases, process, and policy. Join your colleagues from practice and industry at our technology summit on Tuesday, June 15th to dive into our courts' multifaceted data discussion - what we have and what we need - and the impact across the justice system and our communities."

April 2021 Court Tech Notes

 

We share some news and notes in this week’s CTB post.  We note a speech-to-text AI demo video, text reminders, an event on transitioning your workforce back to the courthouse,  yet another article on "Zoom courts", an NCSC Tiny Chat regarding court cell phone policy, and the NCSC website on pandemic response webinars that were recorded in 2020.

 

New AI Enhanced Scanning Tech Speeds Security

 

Earlier this month I was reading the opening day story about my Chicago Cubs baseball club and stumbled on the news that they have installed new AI-enhanced person scanning devices (pictured).  The big benefit of this new technology is that one does not have to remove keys, mobile phone, or have your bag separately scanned.  Great, right?

Details below...

Three Court Tech Events of Note

 

My inbox received notices about three upcoming events that could be of interest to the court technology community.  They are by Microsoft partner, Pythagoras in the UK; the Online Courtroom Project; and the latest in the World Justice Challenge 2021 competition.  Additional details are listed below.

A List Web Conferencing Transcription Systems

 

Microsoft announced an AI-powered live transcription service (AI we can use BTW) in Microsoft Teams, answering Zoom’s new feature.  That got me thinking that they are not alone, as we share below...

 

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