Texas Court Technology Website

The Texas State Courts Online website hosts an excellent web page highlighting their technology efforts.  The Judicial Committee on Information Technology (JCIT) web page contains information on their projects, policies and standards, and statewide contracts.

Federal Courts Expand Access to Information

The US Federal Courts July, 2007 edition of The Third Branch newsletter describes recent enhancements to the PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) system.  The article, "Access to Court Information Ever Expanding" notes that "(c)ustomers of the federal court's" PACER "system now have access without charge, to district court written opinions".

NIEM 2.0 Released

The full press release:

DOJ and DHA Announce the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) 2.0 Release

WASHINGTON- The U.S. Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS) announced today the release of the 2.0 production version of the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) and its supporting tools.  NIEM is the basis for allowing multiple communities of interest to share, exchange, accept, and translate information needed by constituents.

The development of NIEM is a joint effort among DOJ, DHS, and subject-matter experts from the justice, public safety, law enforcement, homeland security and private sectors. Designed by experienced practitioners, governed by participating stakeholders, and driven by leadership from DOJ and DHS, NIEM is developing, disseminating, and supporting enterprise-wide information exchange standards and processes that enable jurisdictions to effectively share critical information in emergency situations, as well as support the day-to-day operations of agencies throughout the nation.

The 2.0 release was driven by practitioner requirements through a well-defined collaborative process.  A major focus of this release was to harmonize the data definitions and usage across multiple domains.  In addition, NIEM was remodeled to remove duplication, complexity, and ambiguity and includes new code lists and types.  It also contains updates to existing code lists and resolution of about 30 issues documented by NIEM users.

This release also contains new and updated tools that will enable users to more easily use NIEM and produce and implement their information exchanges.  These include: the Subset Schema Generation Tool (SSGT), which helps users develop the components of an exchange and allows them to choose which version of NIEM with which to work and the NIEM Migration Asset Tool, which assists in the migration of previously developed wantlists to NIEM 2.0.

Training and technical assistance are available to facilitate the adoption, implementation, and use of this groundbreaking model.  More information regarding NIEM and a link to download the 2.0 version can be found at www.niem.gov. 

For further information, contact Paul Wormeli,  Chairman of the NIEM Communications and Outreach Committee, at paul.wormeli@ijis.org.

Montgomery County, Ohio Issues E-filing RFP

Montgomery County, Ohio is requesting proposals for an electronic case filing system for the Common Pleas Court, General Division and the Clerk of Courts.  Proposals are due on August 22, 2007.  A copy of the RFP can be downloaded after registering with the Montgomery County Purchasing department at:
http://www.mcohio.org/RZ/RZ_bidsummary.asp

Global Justice Information Sharing Conference Slated

The US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance will be presenting the Global Justice Information Sharing Conference in Chicago, Illinois from August 21-23, 2007.  Included in this years conference are updates on the development of the NIEM and many case studies on GJXDM implementations.  Complete information regarding the conference including agenda and accommodation information is now available on the conference website.

Government Computer News Highlights NIEM

In its June 18, 2007 edition, Government Computer News highlighted the recent National Information Exchange Model version 2.0 release in an article titled "Information exchange model at the next level"

Garland Texas Municipal Court Goes Paperless

The City of Garland, Texas issued a press release announcing their paperless municipal court project.  The release stated:
"The staff now processes citations from initial input to final disposition entirely online.  No need to track down files among tens of thousands of documents, or dismiss cases because of missing documents.  All case information is available at each clerk’s desktop."
This system will be highlighted as part of a CTC-10 session titled "Workflow: The Next Step of Case Management System Evolution" hosted by National Center for State Courts Senior Technology Consultant, John Matthias in Tampa, Florida in October, 2007.

Federal Courts Wiki and Post Audio Recordings

The June, 2007 edition of "The Third Branch" newsletters from the US Federal Courts contains two technology related articles. The first article concerns the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Wiki Practioners Guide project. The court "posted its Practitioners Handbook to the web and opened it up for revisions by members of the bar, no holds barred". The second project noted in the newsletter described the pilot project to post digital audio recordings of court proceedings online in three bankruptcy and two district trial courts.

Court Programs Recognized

In May, 2007 the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation recently recognized two court programs as part of their innovation in government awards program. The first program was the Electronic Court Records project in King County Superior Court, Washington. The Ash Institutes website stated that the "(e)lectronic Court Records gives court case file users electronic access. Scanning and e-filing have eliminated paper files, resulting in faster processing, desktop access to documents and better security." The second program recognized was the Juvenile Justice Continuum of Services and Graduated Sanctions program in the 6th Judicial District of New Mexico. The website stated that "(t)he Juvenile Justice Continuum of Services and Graduated Sanctions is composed of an integrated service network of juvenile programs, which have recorded a 70% decline in delinquent offenses since its inception.

Release Candidate 2 for NIEM 2.0 Published

A message from the NIEM Communication and Outreach Committee:  


"Based on feedback received from release candidate 1 of NIEM 2.0, a second release candidate has been posted to www.niem.gov for stakeholder review. All interested parties are requested to respond with comments no later than COB July 16th. Assuming that no major problems are encountered, the NIEM Leadership Team is planning on releasing the production version of NIEM 2.0 on or about July 30th. Tools for schema generation and migration assistance should have completed beta testing by July 30th and will be accessible at www.niem.gov at the same time as the release of the 2.0 model. Please submit your comments on RC2 directly to the National Information Sharing Standards help desk at nisshelp@ijis.org."