Maryland Courts Release Law Help Mobile App

Thanks to our good friend Bonnie Hough we learned that the Maryland Judiciary has a free mobile app that provides easy access to tools and resources to aid Marylanders in using the courts and getting legal help.  The Maryland Law Help app includes: self-help videos, court form finders, direct links to CALL or CHAT directly with an attorney at the Md. Courts Self-Help Center, access to the People's Law Library and court legal help pages, as well as  information on  law libraries, mediation and language access. The app is available for Apple and Android devices through the App Store and Google Play.  For more information see: http://mdcourts.gov/legalhelp/mobileapp.html

Congratulations to the Maryland Judiciary for some great work.

Lastpass now Free but not Court Documents

A couple of news items to share regarding password managers and access to court documents.

This and That in Court Technology – October, 2016

Microsoft Surface Studio

It was a busy month in court technology. In this post we share news about judicial decision prediction system, a court rejecting e-signed documents, a new online traffic ticket mediation implementation, several Microsoft related technology announcements, and last call for the Australia legal and court technology conference registration.

Law Firms as an Electronic Filing Service Provider

We are pleased to share the following article by Mr. Dallas Powell, President of Tybera, Inc., an E-filing services company.  In the article he shares their experience with law firms and government agencies connecting directly to the court's EFM (E-Filing Manager) services.

US Federal Courts PACER Fees Litigation

US Federal Courthouse Las Cruces NM

An article posted at qz.com (Quartz) discusses the court case regarding fees for the public use of the US Federal Courts PACER system.  The article notes:

“the paywall that surrounds Pacer is facing what may be its most serious test since the service emerged 28 years ago. Judge Ellen Huvelle of the US district court in Washington DC is expected to decide in the coming days whether a lawsuit accusing the government of setting Pacer fees at unlawfully high rates can proceed. 

The case, which is seeking class-action certification, is being led by three nonprofits: the National Veterans Legal Service Program, the National Consumer Law Center, and the Alliance for Justice. Each group says it has downloaded documents from Pacer and incurred charges alleged to exceed the cost of providing the records. All say the setup violates the E-Government Act of 2002, which authorizes the judiciary to “prescribe reasonable fees”—and which the plaintiffs argue should limit the government to charge users “only to the extent necessary” to make the information available.”

The full article is worth reading because it provides some explanation of fee waivers and, the total amount of revenue generated that supports court automation that is not provided by Congress in budget appropriation.  We would also point out that there are additional issues such as costs relating to data privacy, redaction, and management that are not addressed in the article.

Court Case Management Systems Part 18: Decision Support

In the previous post in our series we discussed Court Case Management Systems (CCMS) Dashboards that support case process, management information, and decisions.  In other words, information that makes our “court process factory” more efficient.  And the key purpose of case management is to organize data (and insure completeness) so that it can in turn be converted into information for cases to be adjudicated and decisions rendered.

But what’s next?  We think that one part of the answer is to integrate and extend the judicial decision support functionality into the CCMS itself. We explain below…

ROSS – Artificial Intelligent Lawyer

IBM Watson - Home of ROSS

Earlier this week I heard about ROSS for the first time from the brilliant Snorri Ogata of the Los Angeles Superior Court at the NAPCO Conference in Cleveland.  So I had to learn more…

This and That in Court Technology – September, 2016

Attendees enjoying e-Courts

We share news about the e-Courts 2016 Conference, the Federal Courts test of prisoner electronic access kiosks, news in the search for a quiet keyboard - now in portable form, questions raised about Australian use of court videoconferencing, a Blockchain notarization service, and a new court podcast in Florida.

NCSC Court Tech Positions Announced

The National Center for State Courts - Court Consulting Services Division in collaboration with Technology Services has openings for two positions:



1. Senior Court Technology Consultant, Band W316; Salary depends on qualification.
2. Principal Court Technology Consultant, Band D418; Salary depends on qualification.

Positions are open until filled; however, for first consideration, submit applications by Monday, October 3, 2016 until 5:00 pm. EDT.

To apply for any of these positions, go to our web page at: www.ncsc.org/jobs and click on NCSC domestic jobs. First time users will need to register before applying.  Positions are being advertised internally and externally at the same time.

Argentina's Center for Judicial Information

For many years I have been an admirer for the Argentina Judiciary’s Center for Judicial Information website.  I think that it is one of the best judicial websites in the world and it is one that should be studied and monitored by other judiciaries.  Via our good friend, Mr. Luis Maria Palma, President of E-Justicia Latinoamerica and a Vice-President of the International Association for Court Administration we were able to contact Ms. Maria Bourdin, who late last year was named as head of their Ministry of Communication and Open Government.  She was kind enough to answer our questions and share information regarding their excellent court website.