E-Courts 2022 Featured Speaker - Judge Scott Schlegel

 

Judge Scott U. Schlegel, 24th Judicial District Court
for the Parish of Jefferson, Louisiana

Featured Speaker  | Using Low/No-Code Tech to Improve Workflows at eCourts 2022 Conference, December 5-7.

As the saying goes, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” He didn’t coin that phrase, but Judge Scott Schlegel of Louisiana is coming to set us straight. He will open the second day of eCourts with a presentation focused on how he uses off-the-shelf software to revolutionize the justice system. “It’s absurd how many continuances are filed just because nobody called opposing counsel to make sure it was okay with her calendar,” says Judge Schlegel. 

Nevada AOC Re-Opens CMS RFP

https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1609073

It was announced regarding Nevada RFP 22-01: Request for Proposal (RFP) for a Statewide Case Management System that the RFP has been re-opened for bidding.  

Several of the RFP’s requirements were amended, resulting in a revised MSA, new Service Level Agreement, updated evaluation criteria, updated technical specifications table, and an adjusted timeline. The revised MSA includes clauses related to cybersecurity compliance and data escrow. The updated evaluation criteria also weigh price more heavily.  

An Offerors Conference will be held on Wednesday, July 13th, from 8:30 – 11:00 am PST 

Please contact Justin Bell, Grants and Contracts Officer at the Supreme Court of Nevada Administrative Office of the Courts here if you would like to attend.  

Additional details can be found here: Procurements (nvcourts.gov) 

New Mexico AOC Issues Website RFP

 

The Administrative Office of the Courts is issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP) to redesign the website of the New Mexico Judiciary (www.nmcourts.gov). The redesign should produce an easy-to-navigate website to help the public conduct business with courts statewide and provide information about court services and operations to website users. 

 To receive the RFP packet, contact Kerry Armour at (505) 412-9163 at the Administrative Office of the Courts, 202 East Marcy Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501 or check the NM Courts website at nmcourts.gov/court-administration/request-for-proposals .  RFP packets will not be faxed. Proposals must be received by Aug. 1, 2022, 3:00 p.m. MDT. The Procurement Code, Sections 13-1-1 to 13-1-199 (NMSA 1978), imposes civil and criminal penalties for its violation. In addition, the New Mexico criminal statutes impose felony penalties for illegal bribes, gratuities, and kickbacks.

NCSC Hybrid Hearings Improvement Grant Initiative Announced

 

 This one-year project will provide state and local courts an opportunity to learn from and improve upon pandemic-era best practices and to create permanent changes to their hearing practices. Grants will be awarded to 10 to 20 jurisdictions to support the cost of technology equipment and installation of the equipment in at least one courtroom in the jurisdiction, integration with existing systems (when appropriate) and technical assistance to support preliminary operation of the equipment. Additionally, NCSC staff will evaluate the utility of the technology and impact on hearing participants.

Making Court Check-In Better

 

Photo by mohamed hassan from PxHere

 

Many of us have had the experience of checking in for flights or for hotel rooms.  These experiences have changed quite a bit in recent years moving from in-person to your mobile.  Looking ahead, what ideas might courts use from these systems?

Court Forms Online Plus Toolkit

Courts everywhere should check out the Court Forms Online MassAccess project that was created and maintained by the Document Assembly Line Project at the Suffolk Law’s Legal Innovation and Technology Lab in cooperation with the Massachusetts Access to Justice Commission’s COVID-19 task force.  But before we go further… the code tool sets are available online for free!  More…   

A Virtual Court Counter and More in East Lansing Michigan

 

 Image use rights from PXhere.com
https://bit.ly/3lF5uAx

Our favorite fans of film noir, NCSC Tiny Chatters DanielHirsch and Zach Zarnow brought to our attention the virtual court counter, in the Michigan District Court 54B.

North Carolina Publishes the Results of their Court Appearance Project

 

https://bit.ly/3LkoBKz 

A report on the results of “The Court Appearance Project” in North Carolina was released recently. 

“The Court Appearance Project launched in August of  2021 to support local North Carolina criminal justice system leaders committed to examining the scale and impact of missed court appearances in their communities and devising policy solutions to address them.  New  Hanover,  Orange,  and  Robeson  Counties were selected from a diverse pool of applicants, based on the collective commitment of local practitioners and their ideas and momentum for improving policies. Teams were comprised of stakeholders from across the justice system,  including the senior resident superior court judge;  chief district court judge;  representatives from the offices of the district attorney, public defender, clerk, and sheriff; and others.

With technical assistance support from The Pew Charitable Trusts and the University of North Carolina  (UNC)  School of  Government  Criminal  Justice  Innovation  Lab,3  the teams met over several months to review findings from the court and jail data, evaluate the available research, and examples of innovation,  and develop consensus local solutions.  Relying on their combined expertise and the findings from the data, each county team crafted policy solutions that they believed would deliver a high impact in their courts and communities.3 To contact project staff, please reach out to Jessica Smith, Director of the Criminal Justice Innovation Lab, at smithj@sog.unc.edu, and Terry Schuster, Manager of Pew’s Public Safety Performance Project, at tschuster@pewtrust.org.

In brief, here are some findings from the project:

• Geography has an impact on court appearance rates
• Traffic misdemeanors accounted for 82% of all nonappearances
• Driving while license revoked is the #1 offense for nonappearance
• Younger people have higher rates of nonappearance
• There are racial differences in both cases served and nonappearance rates
• Case length has an impact on nonappearance

It is worthwhile to read the entire report to learn about the impact of nonappearance on the public and the justice system and the project's recommendations (including the use of text reminders).  It is available in full as a PDF download at:

https://cjil.sog.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/19452/2022/04/NC-Court-Appearance-Project-Report-4-22-22.pdf

Registration for eCourts 2022 Opens

 

As we have been sifting through session proposals and ideas for how to make a great conference, we realized the conference theme is obvious: We have all been living The Great Shift.

The Great Shift has so many facets:

Automating Plain Language

 

From Microsoft Stock Images

Over two decades ago our NCSC Jury Studies pioneer, Tom Munsterman, ran the WordPerfect word processor language level test against some jury instructions.  He told me it reported that the reading level needed to understand the instructions were university graduate school.  So, when an article identifying “ways that lawyers could make their written documents easier for the average person to read” was posted by MIT, I thought it was time to revisit the subject?