Authentication, E-Signatures. and Signet Rings

 A recent Law.com article noted the wider adoption of e-signatures by lawyers (you know, our court users). But what is the historic basis for this?  Signet rings. We discuss this below...

 

Closing the Electronic Loop and Automating Processes Along the Way

 

John Gustafson & Jim McMillan at CTC2021

We are happy to share the winner of the CTC McMillan Scholarship, John Gustafson, Data Quality Manager, First Judicial Circuit of Florida.  I was happy to meet John at the conference and learn more about his great work for the court.  His award winning submission follows.  

How to Get the Most from CTC2021 with Exhibitors and Sponsors

 

Exhibitors and sponsors are a fundamental part of the CTC experience.

There are dozens of booths in the exhibit hall.  One can plan your in-person visit with our online exhibit hall map so you don’t miss anything.

Online attendees will be able to reach out to exhibitors via our NCSC app during the conference. It is recommended that you download and install (or update) the app prior to the conference starting on September 28^th so you don’t miss anything.

Our sponsors have also prepared some top-tier education sessions that shouldn’t be missed. The sessions will cover a broad range of subjects, including virtual solutions, inclusivity, mitigating user expectations, artificial intelligence, pretrial software, and futureproofing your court.

We’re looking forward to seeing you in Columbus and online!

 

Thoughts on Notes

 

https://bit.ly/3luAySV

As has happened many times in the past I was prompted by the most recent NCSC Tiny Chat on the Hawai’i Online Dispute Resolution system that preparing notes on one’s legal issue in dispute could be useful?  That got me to look at what web-based notes applications are available? There are a lot!

Court Tech News and Notes for September 2021

 

September means “back to school” days.  Learning for my court tech friends includes CourtStack CMS training, the upcoming LegalXML Electronic Court Filing (ECF) face to face meeting at CTC 2021, planning for new Microsoft Teams capabilities, and Ontario’s new legal innovation regulatory sandbox project.

 

Register for CTC2021 Livestream Access Today

 

Registration for livestream access is ready. If you’re planning to attend CTC 2021 online, now’s the time to sign up. Here’s how it works.

We recognize that not everyone is able to travel to Columbus, so we’re excited to share that registration for livestream access is ready. If you’re planning to attend CTC 2021 online, now’s the time to sign up. 

Here’s how it works.

Texas Awards Statewide CMS Contracts

 

Presidio County Courthouse

 

Via press release, August 31, 2021 – The Texas Office of Court Administration (OCA) announced today that it has selected three vendors to support Texas’ new statewide Uniform Case Management System (UCMS). The system is an opt-in court case management system aimed at supporting Texas counties with a population less than 20,000 which equates to over half of the state’s 254 Counties.

More…

New Legal Document Tools Announced

 

MaxPixel.net

Documents are the summer wheat that we make our court case bread (final product) from.  We have two interesting announcements to share in this week’s post from The Effectiveness Project and LegalXML LegalRuleML.

 

CTC-2021 Complete Conference Schedule Updated

 

Conference staff has been hard at work working out the details of CTC 2021. Those details include getting the schedule organized. Today, we’re pleased to announce the conference schedule has been updated with session and track information.

Click here to see the new schedule.

This and That in Court Technology, August 2021

 

In this month’s collection of notes we have news about an online forms creation website, punishment for abuse of social media by posting a judge's personal information, ideas for "engineering gatherings", New Mexico finishing their statewide E-filing implementation project, the new NCSC's Courthouse Retrospective report, CCJ/COSCA support for remote and virtual hearings, and a cool new data tool.

Reminders Work!

 

Irving Texas work “in recent years to improve its municipal court’s Failure to Appear (FTA) rate shows what is possible when cities invest in foundational data practices and use data-driven evaluations to test and fine-tune new approaches.”

The article posted in Medium.com WhatWorksCity subsite explains why Irving focused on this problem.

West Virginia Issues RFP for CMS/EDMS/E-Filing

  

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia is issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP) to acquire an electronic court case management solution comprised of case management, document management, and e-file management systems for the new Intermediate Court of Appeals created in 2021 by the West Virginia Legislature.  

The initial focus of the project will be on the new court with the possibility of future expansion to other levels of the West Virginia Judiciary. The deadline for submission is October 1, 2021. Please click on the link provided below to access the West Virginia Judiciary Request for Proposals Webpage.

http://www.courtswv.gov/court-administration/request-for-proposals.html

 

Text Analytics, Court Stats, and Privacy

 

A couple of weeks ago I shared some of “my problems with pending case statistics”.  Before that, I posted another note regarding an alternative for analyzing criminal justice data.  I generally try not to complain about things without having a solution in mind.  In this article, I will share the idea of using text analytics to work with a court’s largest data source, case documents, and reports.

CTC2021 Keynote Speaker - Peter Warren Singer Announced

 

We’re happy to announce this year’s keynote speaker, Peter Warren Singer. Named one of the nation’s 100 leading innovators by Smithsonian Magazine, Singer is a notable influencer, global thinker, and “mad scientist” by organizations including Defense News, Foreign Policy, and the U.S. Army’s Training and Doctrine Command.

A strategist and senior fellow at the think tank New America, Singer is an award-winning author of novels and non-fiction books about military privatization, robotics, the weaponization of social media, and cyberwar and cybersecurity.

Some Great NCSC Tiny Chat Sessions

 

My friends in the NCSC Tiny Chat Division, have been doing some terrific work lately. Here is a selection of some interesting and fun sessions.

 

CTC2021 Scholarship Applications Sought

 

2015 finalists:: Cynthia Marr, Audrey Jun, and Chris Lundquist

The National Center for State Courts is pleased to announce a call for applications for the James E. McMillan Award (McMillan Award) for Innovation in Court Technology.  The winner, selected by a committee of court technology experts, will receive a full scholarship to attend CTC 2021 in Columbus, OH, September 28-29, 2021.  This full scholarship includes a waiver of conference registration, four nights accommodation at a conference hotel, and round-trip travel expenses. The approximate value of this scholarship is $2,000.

More...

 

Education is Core to CTC

 

The National Center for State Courts is excited to deliver the ideas, information, and strategies to put technology to work in our courts. Education is the reason we host the Court Technology Conference. As usual, we’re featuring multiple education tracks covering practical applications of technology and innovation. This year, there’s a particular focus on what we can learn from our pandemic experiences.

A New NCSC ODR Evaluation Measures Report

 

NCSC Releases Evaluation and Performance Measures Framework for Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) Programs

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, state courts accelerated efforts to implement online dispute resolution (ODR) programs that offer litigants a software platform in which to resolve legal problems, including negotiating settlements or exchanging information in preparation for in-court hearings.  

Why I Hate "Pending Case" Statistics?

 

One of my more strongly held observations from working with court data is the statistical perceptions of case backlogs, or “pending cases” as they are generally used are simply wrong.  I think that this is because they often do not really describe the court’s caseload situation.  I explain...

 

50th Anniversary of the NCSC

Today marks the 50th Anniversary of the incorporation of the National Center for State Courts.  The "founding moment happened on March 11, 1971.  

Our press release said:

"It was 50 years ago — March 11, 1971 — that the First National Conference on the Judiciary opened at the Williamsburg Conference Center in Williamsburg, Virginia.