US Bankruptcy Courts Protect Privacy

A December, 2006 article in the US Federal Courts newsletter "The Third Branch" described the Bankruptcy Courts response to the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA). The article states that "Although the federal courts already have in place a policy on privacy and public access to electronic case files (http://www.privacy.uscourts.gov/b4amend.htm), Section 315 of the Act specifically required that the Director of the Administrative Office (AO) establish procedures for safeguarding the confidentiality of the required tax information."

The article further states that "(u)nder the guidance issued by the AO, no tax information filed with the bankruptcy court or otherwise provided by the debtor will be available to the public on the Internet, on the Judiciary’s electronic public access service that allows users to obtain case and docket information from records, or through the courts’ Case Management/Electronic Case Files system. For non-court users of any of these systems or networks, a docket report will indicate only that tax information has been filed."

MassCourts Lite Announced

On February 6, 2007 a Massachusetts Court System press release stated that "Chief Justice for Administration and Management Robert A. Mulligan today announced that the Trial Court has completed its rollout of MassCOURTS Lite to 63 divisions of the District and Boston Municipal Court Departments. MassCOURTS is the Trial Court’s web-based, electronic case management system."

Ohio Supreme Court Goes Digital

In a press release the Ohio Supreme Court announced their digital document program began operation in December, 2006. They wrote: "Digital images of case documents filed with the Supreme Court of Ohio are now available on the Court's Web site, through the Clerk of Court's online case docket search."

"The feature allows quick and easy access to anyone interested in case filings before the Supreme Court of Ohio. For more than 200 years there was one way to read a merit brief or other document in a case file at the Supreme Court – Physically visit the Clerk's Office and look in the file."

The website can be viewed at: http://www.supremecourtofohio.gov/Clerk_of_Court/

E-Courts 2006 Notes - Day One

Roger Winters has completed the first day of his extensive notes on the E-Courts 2006 Conference held this past December in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Are you prepared for Daylight Savings Time changes?

Recent communications from our friend Tom Hoffmann (Systems Manager at the Orange County, Florida Clerk of Courts) reminded us of the possible impact of Daylight Savings Time changes on IT systems. In August of 2005, President Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This Act extends Daylight Savings Time by four weeks beginning in 2007, with the intended benefit being reduced energy consumption. DST will now begin on the second Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday in November.

This change could affect computers and applications that incorporate date and time processing functions or time stamps. Most applications and databases rely on the operating system clock for date and time functions. There is likely a patch for most operating systems that you’ve hopefully already applied. There is apparently also a problem with Java applications running under an older runtime environment (JRE). Most of our Court IT friends have probably already assessed the impact on their systems. For those who haven’t, now would be a good time. Many vendors have made available updates and/or recommended approaches to dealing with the change. Several links are provided below for articles on the subject and to pages from a few of the larger systems providers, but you should contact your system and application vendors for additional information.

Articles:

• Computerworld
• edgeblog
• USA Today
• Wikipedia

Courts Report on Technology Projects

Thanks to our friends in our Customer Service Desk here at the NCSC we received notes about two court automation projects. First, the Delaware Judiciary reported that they have successfully completed the first phase of the implementation of their new case management system.

And second, the Sioux City Journal reports on an interview of the Iowa's Chief Justice Marsha Ternus, regarding their efforts to go paperless. The Iowa Judicial Branch also posted proposed Rules for Electronic Filing in January, 2007.

National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) Executive Briefing

We received the following announcement regarding an upcoming meeting:

The NIEM Program Management Office is hosting a NIEM Executive Session on January 23, 2007, to brief CIO's, Chief Architects, Program Managers and their representatives from the Federal Government as well as other interested parties.

Topics to be covered will include the definition of NIEM, where NIEM is today, its business value, a high level overview of its architecture and enterprise architecture context, and how to become involved or get started.

NIEM, the National Information Exchange Model, is a partnership between the Department of Homeland Security and the US Department of Justice. NIEM is focused on (i) developing reusable data components, (ii) proving support for packaging these components into business context to make reusable exchange specifications, (iii) doing so across domains and communities of interest, and (iv) providing standards, governance, methods, tools, training and technical assistance to drive adoption, use, and value creation.

The vision for NIEM is to be the standard, by choice, for cross-government information exchange.

TIME & DATE: January 23, 2007, 9AM - Noon 

PLACE: American Association for Advancement of Science, 1200 New York Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20005. AAAS is located on 12th Street, NW, with entrances at H Street and New York Ave. The nearest metro stop is Metro Center. To download a detailed map of the area, please follow this link: http://www.aaas.org/dcwest.pdf

REGISTRATION: Please send response to tpate@iir.com if you plan to attend. There is no cost to attend but space is limited.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.NIEM.gov/

Privacy and Public Access to Court Records Conference to be Held

According to their release "(o)n Thursday and Friday, March 22nd and 23rd, 2007, with the assistance of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, the Center for Legal and Court Technology (formerly the Courtroom 21 Project) will host the Fifth Conference on Privacy and Public Access to Court Records in Williamsburg, Virginia."

The release invites interested parties to attend "the Conference, which will bring together policy makers from the state and federal courts, judges, law professors, access and privacy advocates, and others involved in efforts to develop policies on public access to court records."

In Memory of John Doktor

We are pleased to announce that the attendees at the recent E-Courts Conference donated $743 to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in memory of John Doktor. John was director of the Integrated Justice System project in Maricopa County, Phoenix, Arizona and a long time contributor in advancing court technology. He will be missed.

US Federal Courts Report on Technology

The November, 2006 issue of The Third Branch newsletter published by the US Federal Courts is chock full of articles regarding technology use in their system. Articles include:

• Federal Courts Look to Contain Costs in Lean Times discusses the use and impact of the CM/ECF system
• Payment of Court Fees Via the Internet Grows in Popularity reports on the growing use of credit card payment by attorneys.
• Electronically Stored Information Target of New Rules talks about new amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedures.
• Robust IT Program Benefits Courts and Public: An Interview with Judge Thomas Vanaskie who is chair of the Judicial Conference Committee on Information Technology and a speaker at the E-Courts 2006 conference.