Some Ideas for Handling the Upcoming Covid-19 Case Surge

 

Everyone can easily foresee the surge of in-person court cases that are coming later in 2021.  Many courts have put case processing on hold.  And assuming that the vaccination program will be successful in the first half of the year, what can courts do to address the case backlog and new matters that will come?  I have some ideas that I will share below.

Please also note that my colleagues and friends of the NCSC have created a tremendous resource around courts and the pandemic at  https://www.ncsc.org/newsroom/public-health-emergency  Click on the Statewide Plans to Resume Court Operations link (you may have to scroll across the red navigation bar to find it).

 

Building Ventilation – 2021 Court Tech

 

Today, I saw an excellent article on Bloomberg.com regarding building air quality and ventilation issues.  This is an important court technology concern with the Covid-19 pandemic but also a long term concern for occupant health.  Since many courthouses have challenges in this area, I thought it might be good to share some questions and quote key responses from the article below?

Please read the full article here.

 

Judiciary Addresses Cybersecurity Breach: Extra Safeguards to Protect Sensitive Court Records

 

See attribution below

Via Press Release Published on January 6, 2021

“After the recent disclosure of widespread cybersecurity breaches of both private sector and government computer systems, federal courts are immediately adding new security procedures to protect highly sensitive confidential documents filed with the courts.

“The federal Judiciary’s foremost concern must be the integrity of and public trust in the operation and administration of its courts,” James C. Duff, Secretary of the Judicial Conference of the United States, the Judiciary’s national policy-making body, said in a January 6, 2021, communication to the courts.

New Jersey Remote Court Instructions

 

See attribution below

This past weekend I read an article in our local newspaper regarding problems some courts were having dealing with the backlog of housing/landlord-tenant cases due to the pandemic.  I was somewhat surprised to read that all their hearings were still being done in-person.  Why?  I do not know. But for those courts who may not be able to develop their own procedures, I suggest that you take a look at the New Jersey Courts “Instructions for Participants in RemoteCourt Events”?  Surely these would be helpful for many court and chambers hearings?

Transparent Displays - The New Public 'Window'

  

image provided by LG.COM

We just learned of the new transparent OLED (flat panel) displays that are being introduced by the LG corporation at the 2021 ConsumerElectronics Show.  While this article projects that these displays would be used at restaurants or subway stations, I think they would be the perfect court clerk/registrar "window".  We explain…

Explaining Why Court Tech Seemed to Move Slowly in 2020?

 

Recently I heard multiple legal technology writers bemoan the slowness that courts adopt and implement new online and similar services.  I explain why that is, and why it is likely not to get better soon in this post? It is going to be a cold winter.

Dynamic Fees for Courts

 

Mural in the Ariel Rios Federal Building

We can clearly foresee that the upcoming years will be difficult for governments and courts as tax revenue will take some time to recover following the Pandemic.  Court budgets being primarily composed of personnel costs will respond by not filling empty positions, layoffs, and reducing service hours and/or days.

I have an idea that could be considered to ameliorate service reductions that were introduced in recent years, famously by ride-sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft, known as “dynamic” or “surge” pricing.  I explain below.

Virtual eCourts 2020 Starts Today

A small reminder, Virtual eCourts conference starts today, December 7, 2020.  Held each day for about 4 hours, one can still sign up at https://e-courts.org/ for the Zoom webinar.  

eCourts 2020 Agenda Online - #eCourts2020

 As with nearly all conferences, this year eCourts 2020 is a virtual online event on December 7, 8, and 9 starting at 1:00 PM eastern standard time each day.  We have an outstanding list of presentations scheduled.  The full list is available at https://e-courts.org/conference-info/   Some highlights are…

Monday Sessions

Keynote – Motivating Strategies for a Remote World, presenter Thomas Topping who is a professional speaker and employee engagement expert with a master’s degree in Human Resources Management. He has spent his career transforming teams and training individuals for some of the largest organizations in the United States. His professional contributions have been described as innovative, unique, pioneering, daring, and out-of-the-box.

Texas Issues RFO for Statewide Uniform CMS

A Texas Armadillo

We learned on November 17, 2020, that:

“The Texas Office of Court Administration (OCA), a judicial branch agency that assists the Supreme Court of Texas with the administration of the Texas courts, invites submissions of offers for a statewide, integrated, comprehensive, cloud‐based uniform case management system and associated implementation services in compliance with the requirements and terms set forth in this RFO (UCMS).”

Of note, questions are due by December 8, 2020 with offer submissions due on January 21, 2020.

The full RFO announcement and documents are available online at http://www.txsmartbuy.com/esbddetails/view/212210180