Some More Thoughts on CMS Data Conversion

Recently there has been news about case management systems projects with data conversion error problems.  While we have written about this issue before, I would like to share some more thoughts on this important issue.

This and That in Court Technology – March, 2017

Time for another round-up of court technology related items.  In this edition we remind everyone of the CTC 2017 proposal deadline, the Wyoming courts need to increase their Court Automation Fee, an online paperless court savings calculator, an argument for AI technology to replace juries in the future, and a story about "Amy Ingram", a digital scheduling assistant "bot" program.

CTC 2017 Call for Proposals

Salt Lake City, Utah skyline

The Court Technology Conference (CTC) 2017 will be held September 12-14 in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Salt Palace Convention Center. If you know CTC, you know our tradition of bringing new perspectives to techy tools for the court profession. This year we are reaching out to the court community for session ideas that will energize teams of administrators, technologists, and judges to attend our education program.

Why do Court IT Projects Fail?

A good number of court IT projects fail.  I share my list as to what and why in this Court Tech Bulletin post for the end of February 2017.

CTC-2017 Program Development Survey

Our conference planners for the upcoming CTC-2017 to be held in Salt Lake City from September 12-14, 2017 are asking for your help.  They have posted an online survey to gather your ideas to make the conference the best it can possibly be.

To take the survey click here.

Also, conference registration is open and available at http://www.ctc2017.org/Registration.aspx

Cell phones out of control? Call Yondr.

Fed up with cell phones in your courtroom? Concerned about the surreptitious recording of witnesses, undercover agents and/or jurors? Are your jurors accessing cell/mobile devices when they shouldn't be? Are witnesses in your courtrooms communicating via text when they shouldn't be?   At the E-Courts 2016 conference we learned about Yondr, a company that provides a new and different solution for cell/mobile phone device security in courthouses and secure facilities.

Court Tech Related News and Notes – February, 2017

We have news about Margaret Hagan’s new book, digital justice around the world, New Hampshire’s neutral citation program, Tyler Technology in Maine, a new name for the FACT group, and a survey on social media.

Machine Intelligence Analyses Judges

I have predicted for a very long time that the “market research” that started with consumers in the 90’s with the advent of the Internet would be coming to the courts. LexisNexis made it official this week in their press release “LexisNexis Integrates Lex Machina Legal Analytics into Lexis Advance Online Legal Information Solution”

What does this mean?  I will begin the discussion below.

Courtrooms - How to Get Quiet

We used to say about computers that you can never have too much RAM or too much disk space.  Similarly in courtrooms one cannot make them too quiet.  We discuss why and how on this below.

CourtHack 2.0 Coming - Spring, 2017

Robot lawyers that help file court appeals and geo-positioning technology that alerts police officers when court orders are being served in their area are just two of the innovative technologies developed at NCSC’s first CourtHack in 2016. It was so successful that CourtHack 2.0 is being held April 22-23, 2017, at the New Jersey Law Center in New Brunswick. CourtHack aims to attract the brightest legal minds, technologists, entrepreneurs, and others to compete in a 30-hour hackathon to develop technologies to improve the administration of justice.  Court experts, including judges, court administrators, and court CIOs from across the country, participate as mentors and advisors.

This and That in Court Technology – January, 2017

Just like the National Football League (USA style pictured here), there is a lot of news regarding digital transformation.  The edition has notes on an American Bar Association report on E-Briefing, Nebraska appellate court E-filing, a Robot Lawyer application for parking tickets, a RAND corporation report on “Future Proofing” justice, commentary on potentially opening California legal publication, and a couple of technologies that need to be sent to the trash bin.

Some Big Court Technology Corporate News

Two changes in court technology-related corporations came to our attention this week via press releases.

Court Tech Research & Training News – January, 2017

There have been several interesting articles, and research published related to court technology topics over the past several months.  In this post, we share articles on Decision Making, Online Access to State Judicial Systems, Evaluating the Use of Videoconferencing Technology in Domestic Violence Ex Parte Hearings, Blockchain technology as a regulatory technology, and a Free Webinar on Cybersecurity coming up on January 18, 2017.

A Court Technology eFiling Winter Wonderland

Our mystery holiday songwriter has submitted a new version of the classic "Winter Wonderland" to celebrate the season.  Enjoy!

E-Courts Conference Presentations Video Available

Last weeks E-Courts Conference had an outstanding set of educational sessions.  They are now available online at:
http://www.e-courts.org/Media/Videos.aspx

I particularly enjoyed the sessions that offered solutions including::

• Using Predictive Analysis to Prevent the Financial Exploitation of Elders
• Three Real-World ODR Implementations
• Litigant Portals
• CourtHack Winners
• Building Better Court Websites - and Beyond
• New Models for Court Scheduling
• Electronic Courtrooms in Pierce County, Washington

There are great ideas in all of the conference sessions, and if you weren't able to attend, or would like to share them with your court, you can now do so.  Congratulations to all for a great conference.

Kentucky Pretrial Services Virtual Tour

Via the December, 2016 SJI Newsletter

Hosted by the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), the Pretrial Justice Center for Courts is a national collaborative initiative featuring the latest efforts to develop and improve pretrial services. Recently, Kentucky Pretrial Services launched a virtual tour aimed at fellow pretrial service providers and those stakeholders new to the Kentucky Court of Justice process.

Watch e-Courts Conference Live

You may not have been able to get yourself to Las Vegas for the SOLD OUT e-Courts 2016, but you can still participate in the conference. NCSC is broadcasting a free live stream so everyone in the court community can take it in.

Program highlights includes: Keynote speaker Gary Marchant at 11:45 am (eastern) on Monday; three examples of online dispute resolution implementations at 5:45 pm (eastern) on Monday; and how to build a better court website at 12:35 pm (eastern) on Tuesday. The complete agenda is available on the eCourts conference website at www.e-courts.org

If you see this post on time you can click here to watch the online video stream.

AAERT Releases New Analysis Report on Digital Court Recording

Via press release - a new paper,  Analysis and Advantages of Digital Court Reporting and Recording in the Courts, Deposition, and Administrative Hearings Markets in Wilmington, Delaware was issued on November 28, 2016

This and That in Court Technology – December, 2016

In this month's edition, we have e-Courts information; some news items and announcements from Microsoft; Alameda County, California CMS problems; a new way to annotate legal briefs; and some holiday gift guides for last minute shopping.

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Is it Time to Rename CMS?

The term “Case Management Systems” has been appropriated for use in a much wider range of software applications such as insurance and financial organizations.  Is it time to rename and re-brand our main court automation systems?  Maybe?