Appellate Court E-Filing - 2010

During the recent National Association of Appellate Court Clerks conference, a presentation on lessons learned from E-filing projects was made.  Supreme Courts in Wyoming, Texas and North Carolina shared their experiences.

We also became recently aware that the Supreme Court of Georgia is allowing members in good standing are allowed to register to E-file.  In an article by the Savannah Morning News, Chief Justice Carol Hunstein
was quoted:

What we’re talking about here is a revolutionary change that is a win-win situation for the Court and for the litigants,” Hunstein.said.  The parties will save time and money by no longer having to print, copy and deliver paper documents. No more fighting Atlanta traffic to get those documents into our Clerk’s office by the 4:30 filing deadline. Details about the system can be found at: http://www.gasupreme.us/efile/index.php

Paper on Demand Case Study

Periodically the NCSC has developed case study papers for court technology.  The most recent one is A Case Study of Paper on Demand POD that focuses on E-filing in Colorado and Utah.  You can download a PDF copy here.

NCSC releases 22nd edition of Future Trends in State Courts

Williamsburg, Virginia, USA - June 30, 2010 - The evaluation and adjustment of court operations to improve processes and save money while increasing efficiency and maintaining service levels to the public - a process known as court re-engineering - is the central theme of Future Trends in State Courts 2010, the latest edition of the National Center for State Courts NCSC annual report on Trends in State Courts series. This is the 22nd edition of the series, which is dedicated to making courts aware of key trends that affect not only court operations, but also the role of courts in society.

A limited number of free printed copies of Future Trends 2010 are available by contacting the National Center at 1-800-616-6164. In addition, the National Center is offering a CD containing electronic versions of this year edition as well as the 2000-09 editions. The publication can also be accessed online at: http://www.ncsconline.org/D_KIS/Trends/

Indiana Looks for New Appellate CMS

On July 9, 2010 the following was posted:

 The Division of State Court Administration STAD is responsible for delivering information technology solutions to the Appellate Courts of the State of Indiana defined collectively as the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, and Tax Court and to related judicial agencies, including the Clerk’s Office.

STAD is seeking proposals for the delivery of an Appellate Case Management System CMS, with public access and electronic case filing capabilities, for the State’s Appellate Courts.  The PNCO website with relevant document links is located at: http://www.in.gov/judiciary/admin/pnco.html

Editor's note: even if you will never issue an appellate court request for proposal, one might want to collect these documents for future reference and ideas for your own RFP

Comments on Courtroom Technology

On June 16, 2010 authors George C. Zumbano and Benjamin R. Messing posted an article - Technology Is a Double-Edged Sword in the Courtroom on Law.com. The article contains sections on cost-benefit analysis, effectively utilizing technology, and avoiding presentation problems.

Mastering the Unpredictable

A book released earlier this year titled: Mastering the Unpredictable, How Adaptive Case Management Will Revolutionize the Way that Knowledge Workers Get Things Done includes a chapter by NCSC Senior Management Consultant, John Matthias.  Johns chapter, Technology for Case Management, builds on the overall theme stated by the author that - some kinds of work are unpredictable.  We in the courts are reminded every day that this is true.

The book brings together for the first time in one volume ideas that address this issue.  To read a summary go to the authors, Keith D. Swensons blog at: http://kswenson.wordpress.com/2010/04/14/launching-mastering-the-unpredictable/

The book's website is: http://www.masteringtheunpredictable.com/page1.php

Why the Future Is Not Paper - Second in a Series

Many courts are continuing to view and insist that E-filed electronic documents should continue to be functionally the same as their paper and much dumber cousins.  Please consider that information entombed in a paper document is now locked as to the accuracy of the moment it is printed.  It is essentially a snapshot.  This of course results in all sorts of problems as to the information accuracy when that paper document is later read and used.  And unfortunately, judges and court staff are relying on the accuracy of that locked paper information to make decisions that affect people’s lives.

Say for example a person has a judgment later set aside.  The original judgment document is still there as the written case record.  But later when the document becomes invalid, wouldn’t it be great if the original document could display a link maybe even a flashing icon to the later and more current order?  Of course
it would. The electronic document world can and should be information dynamic.  The electronic legal research companies are providing tools that automatically perform cite and currency checks against statutory and case law.  Why wouldn't the courts take advantage of this capability in the documents submitted for action?  Hyper-links and icons can indicate whether the citation is accurate and when the statute was changed.

Future electronic documents could also provide similar checks against the appropriate databases for a persons’ status say if they were on probation or had a civil protection order in another jurisdiction.  The accuracy checks could be done dynamically when the document is displayed and in turn, reduces the need to capture this information in the court’s case management system. Now we know the argument is that the original document shouldn't be changed because it represents the actual case submissions and that status must be preserved for potential appellate review.  We would in turn argue that the reference links could be filtered or “turned-off” when used in an appellate or similar context.  Again, it is dynamic.  Can your “dead-tree” document do that?

Next – how do you verify a paper document?

New Website for US Federal Courts

The US Federal Courts collected comments and ideas from a "wide range of users" resulting in a new redesigned website with multimedia, automatic updates, and many other features.  See for yourself at: http://www.uscourts.gov/Home.aspx

Survey Targets Courts Using Social Media

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Blogs.  The list is seemingly endless.  The NCSC is assisting the Conference of Court Public Information Officers, with collecting questionnaire responses for the first major survey on new media and the courts.  To learn more, and to access the survey go to: http://icmelearning.com/CCPIO/index.html

Why the Future Is Not Paper - First in a Series

This is the first in a series of notes on how the future court document and file environment is not going to look like the current paper-based systems.  I wrote a paper many years ago that used the analogy of automobiles.  The first autos looked like horse carriages.  Does your car look like a carriage now?

One very interesting approach was recently posted by Microsoft Research.  The system is called Pivot and it uses the DeepZoom and Silverlight technology that has been shown in recent years.  It is difficult to explain.  For several video presentations on the new technology go to:  http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/pivotviewer/

Pivot uses JPEG images and so after seeing the demonstrations please note that there are several software applications that can convert PDF pages to images.  One that I tested successfully is Office Converter: http://www.officeconvert.com/