Online Courtroom Project Issues Report

Earlier this year we shared news about the Online Courtroom Project.  The two-day online trial was held June 26 and 27, 2020.  The findings were captured in a report posted on July 15, 2020.

Are Current Courthouses Wrong for the Post Pandemic World?

The Covid-19 Pandemic has been an opportunity to re-examine how courts and legal business is done.  We have written many articles about new ideas and experiments in recent months. Now it is time to think long-term about courthouses themselves as they are the second biggest expense after the judges and staff?  Let’s begin:

The Economics of Court Technology

In June 2020 Los Angeles Superior Court announced the “LACourtConnect” program to facilitate web/video/audio appearance.  It is among many efforts to enable remote court access.  But there is more about this that is important that I will discuss below.

Courts Posting Zoom Conference ID’s and Passwords

Some news came in from several courts.  It is reported that Zoom web conferencing proceedings are being interrupted because the courts are publicly posting the time, link, and passwords on their websites.

Stop it!

We apply security in the physical courthouse. It should be the same in cyberspace.  

First, instead of openly posting the Zoom information, one can have a request system to attend the conference.  This is the security officer/body scanning approach. The request system message can then be reviewed by staff and the approved link and password then sent via e-mail or text to the person.    

I can see that a court might not want to spend the time/cost to program a request system?  The church I attend uses Eventbrite, but this G2.com article lists 20 alternatives.  

Second, if one wishes to make the entire proceeding public, then one can use Zoom’s ability to stream via YouTube? The Texas Supreme Court and others (I watched a hearing from the Guyana Supreme Court this morning) have used this approach.  

See this information page from Zoom for YouTube streaming.

This is not hard.

This and That in Court Technology - July 2020

Assateague Island Wild Ponies

We have news about a report on protection order repositories, a drive-up clerk’s office that protects uses and staff, comments on impediments in the application of court and legal technology, the HiiL Charging for Justice report, the NIEM 5.1 beta standard announcement, AI closed captioning systems compared, and fun Zoom and Teams web video meeting backgrounds.

eCourts 2020 Summer Survey

We could use your help figuring out eCourts 2020.

We hope you and your family are staying safe with all that's going on in the world. The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) is staying on top of developing challenges we all face, including COVID, job-related stresses, travel, and budget cuts. 

eCourts 2020 is a mere five months away, and while we have an excellent education, networking, and exhibit show planned, the possibility of not being able to have a face-to-face conference is still up in the air. 

We could use your help. Please take a few minutes to complete a quick survey.  Click here.

 

Actionable Cybersecurity for Courts

https://bit.ly/37YIZ1L

  A new NCSC report written by Sajed Naseem, Court Information Security Officer, New Jersey Courts, Jannet A. Okazaki, Principal Court Management Consultant, NCSC, and Barbara Holmes, Principal Court Management Consultant, NCSC was released last month. 

 

This and That in Court Technology - Summer Solstice 2020 Edition

Since many of us are still social distancing, I thought it would be nice to enjoy the upcoming summer solstice sunrise with the following news from the court tech world?  In this edition, we share a new NCSEA webinar, a Court Leader podcast on how courts are dealing with the pandemic, news about a Trinidad and Tobago online murder trial, the US Federal Courts restarting jury trials report, news from courts in Southeast Asia, and a new handy Microsoft Windows 10 feature.

CCMS Part 21: Comments on Project Management, Acquisition, and Development

Old Davidson County Tennessee Courthouse sculpture by Brent Moore

https://bit.ly/2yZxmKW

Over the years I have picked up some ideas that I think can help many court technology projects.  In this penultimate post to the Court Case Management System (CCMS) series, we wish to share some of those ideas and lessons learned.  We will specifically discuss acquisition strategies, buy versus build, and sustainability. 

The Online Courtroom Project Announced

https://onlinecourtroom.org

Via Press Release:

Announcing the formation of THE ONLINE COURTROOM PROJECT

In an era of social distancing, how do we stay together to ensure that justice is still done? How can we protect our constitutional right to be judged by a jury of our peers if we are required to stay physically apart? How do we ensure our constitutional access to justice when some courthouse doors are locked? Is justice possible when parties, witnesses, and even triers of fact appear online? These are pressing questions for our legal system and our democracy.