7th Conference on Privacy and Public Access to Court Records Announced

The Center for Legal and Court Technology and the NCSC with assistance from the Administrative Office of the US Courts announces the 7th Conference on Privacy and Public Access to Court Records.  The conference will be held on March 4 and 5, 2010 in Williamsburg, Virginia.  Announce agenda topics include:

• Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going:  A Decade of Court Public Access and Privacy Policy Development
• Court Public Access Policy Implementation:  Recent Developments
• Emerging Issues in E-filing and Privacy
• Bulk Data:  Latest Trends
• New Media in the Courtroom and at the Courthouse:  Texts, Tweets & Blogs, Oh My!
• Privacy and the Public Record:  The Big Picture Debate
• Public Electronic Access to Federal Court Records “PACER”:  New Initiatives, New Challenges

The conference fee is $225.00 with an optional conference dinner priced at $50.

For more information email medalt@wm.edu or ccvaug@wm.edu or phone the CLCT at: 757-221-2494

More iPods for Bailiffs and Lawyers too

Back on September 10th I posted an article here on the potential for equipping court bailiffs with iPods.  This week I received a catalog from the Creston company that supplies control systems used in many courtrooms.  I was pleasantly surprised to find an iPod/iPhone Crestron-Mobile-Pro app that lets one create an interface to the control system similar to their custom touch control units.  Click on the link to read more about the app and see screen examples.

And while I was on the subject I decided to do a search for iPhone apps for lawyers.  I found a great webpage titled Our Favorite iPhone Apps for Lawyers that was written following the Spring 2009 American Bar Association TechShow.

It is said that this is where all the technology action is currently.  This is evidence that it is now making an impact on the courts and legal system.

IJIS releases NIEM Conformance guidance for RFPs

On October 30, the IJIS institute announced the NIEM Conformance for RFPs.  The document states that:

"It is intended to be a resource for public safety practitioners who are making decisions with regard to procurement for public safety computer systems that have, or may in the future have, information sharing requirements with other systems. The goal is to help ensure RFPs meet federal grant requirements and national best practices for information sharing, and to provide help in understanding the technology standards and how they relate to product selection. The National Information Exchange Model NIEM, which is most often included in U.S. Department of Justice DOJ and U.S. Department of Homeland Security DHS grant requirements, is a national approach and common vocabulary for information exchange."

"NIEM Conformance for RFPs was developed by the IJIS Institute’s Public Safety Technical Standards Committee IPSTSC and is available online:

http://www.ijis.org/docs/NIEM_Conformance_for_RFP_20091028.pdf

Ergonomic Mouse Helps

Since early summer your CTB editor has been experiencing hand pain in the tendon connected to the index finger.  After trying different treatment methods including rest, massage, heat, cold, the pain always returned.  Finally today I decided that enough was enough and researched various ergonomic mouse options.  After some online research I narrowed the choices down to two, the Microsoft Natural Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 and the Logitech Performance Mouse MX   Both seemed to do the job of turning the wrist/finger position from a parallel to the table surfact to a more natural tilted position please see the two websites for photos to see what this means.  So off to the store to try them out and I came back with the Microsoft version.  And I must report that there was immediate pain relief.  Of course time will tell if this is a solution, but so far, so good.

Dallas County Texas Courts Moving to Electronic Files

According to an article, Dallas County courts moving to all-electronic filing published on October 11, 2009 on DallasNews.com, that the Dallas County, Texas District Clerks Office is:

"Converting files for the county criminal, family and civil cases to electronic form and destroying the old-fashioned versions."

The article further notes that:

"Seventeen district clerk employees spent a combined 250 hours scanning thousands of documents in Magnis court over an August weekend."

And in the sidebar - Going Paperless: By the Numbers the article states two significant facts:

• 75 percent: Amount of requested files from the clerks office that are from the last two years 

• Jan. 1, 2010: The date Dallas County new criminal cases will no longer generate paper files

US Federal Courts Move Forward on Automation

On October 9, 2009 the US Federal Courts newsroom website noted the many accomplishments achieved by the CM/ECF system.  The release states:

The federal judiciary's Case Management/Electronic Case Files CM/ECF project revolutionized the way in which the federal courts manage their cases and documents. This easy-to-use system allows attorneys to file documents directly with the court over the Internet and allows courts to file, store, and manage their case files in an easy-to-access, transparent way.

The September, 2009 edition of The Third Branch Newsletter also contained two articles of interest.  The first, Electronic Public Access Program/PACER Assessment Begun, notes:

The Judiciary’s Electronic Public Access Program is looking for user input. The program, which recently celebrated its one-millionth Public Access to Court Electronic Records PACER subscriber, has launched a year-long, comprehensive assessment to identify potential enhancements to existing and new public access services.

The newsletter also contained an article titled: "Reminder to Redact".  As most everyone who works with electronic document information is aware, redaction of sensitive private information is critical.  The article describes the Federal Courts approach to the issue.  It begins:

"Attorneys using the Judiciary’s Case Management/Electronic Case Files CM/ECF system will find they must acknowledge a reminder to redact private information from documents before they access the system. It is part of the Judiciary’s on-going effort to protect privacy in publicly accessible court records by reminding attorneys that it is their responsibility to comply with redaction rules."

"A message is displayed when an attorney logs in to CM/ECF. The attorney is required to check a box on the last line of the reminder to show they have read it. The message also provides links to the Federal Rules regarding redaction. In addition, another reminder message has been added to the screen where the attorney finalizes submission of the filed document. The message asks: 'Have you redacted?'”

OASIS LegalXML Offers E-Filing Technical Assistance

The OASIS LegalXML Electronic Court Filing ECF Technical Committee has some limited free yes, free! technical assistance available for courts and vendors interested in implementing electronic filing.  The goal of the LegalXML ECF is to create XML based message standards for the transmission of legal documents with the courts; and the latest ECF 4.0 specification is fully conformant with the NIEM and web services standards.

To read more about the work of the ECF go to their webpage at:

http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=legalxml-courtfiling

To request technical assistance you may contact Jim Cabral at: JCabral@mtgmc.com

NCSC E-Filing Survey Results Posted

The results of the 2009 National Center for State Courts electronic court filing survey have been posted online.

The website contains an interactive Google Map that shows the locations of courts who responded to the survey with links to their answers.  The survey is the most comprehensive to date and contains more than 100 courts and court systems.

Some interesting survey results were found.  Among the results it was found that funding and IT staff resources are seen as the most significant barrier to E-filing implementation.  Since E-filing must be integrated into the courts case and document management workflow, the time and effort to do this has been difficult for courts to absorb in these difficult financial times.  But the survey also found that once E-filing has been implemented in the courts, it works. Courts responded that 100 percent of various case types have been E-filed successfully.

Another significant finding is that while courts have not transitioned to electronic format as their official record, many are in transition.  And while courts are continuing to required clerk review of all electronically submitted documents, half are allowing case initiation via E-filing.

Other findings include:

• Service of Process still being done by physical mail
• Redaction of sensitive information by the courts is mixed
• Sealed documents are submitted primarily in hard copy
• Evidence is submitted both electronically and hard copy
• E-filed documents are not available online
• PDF is by far the most popular document type filed
• If XML is used by the E-filing system, it is the LegalXML 1.x version

Jury Instruction Videos Available Online

Recently we became aware that two terrific jury instruction videos from the New Mexico and Oregon state judicial systems have been made available online.  The New Mexico video can be viewed via Internet streaming technology at:

http://www.nmcourts.gov/juryvideolinks.html

The Oregon jury instruction video can be downloaded in both Windows Media and Flash formats at:

http://courts.oregon.gov/Multnomah/General_Info/Jury_Service/Juror_Orientation_Video.page?

2009 NIEM National Training Event Sessions Available Online

Most of the NCSC technology staff are in Baltimore, Maryland this week speaking and participating in the 2009 NIEM National Training Event http://www.niem.gov.

On September 30, 2009 the NIEM staff released this message:

"During these difficult economic times the NIEM Program recognizes the challenges facing many NIEM stakeholders and to accommodate those that were unable to attend the NIEM National Training Event, we will be broadcasting live the keynote presentations at the event.

Additionally, the breakout training sessions taking place at this event will be captured and the audio and slideshow presentations will be available for playback shortly after the conclusion of the Training Event.

These valuable resources will be available via the link included below or via the NIEM Web site http://www.niem.gov/ ."