Saturday, January 15, 2011
MI: Supreme Court order permits e-filing pilot testing
of electronically filing court documents in lieu of traditional paper filings...All state courts in Michigan are envisioned as eventually permitting e-filing (with appropriate modifications and
improvements)." The project began January 1 and is authorized until December 2012. (h/t Michigan Lawyer)
Thursday, January 13, 2011
CTC 2011 Call for Ideas and Participation
The Court Technology Conference (CTC) attracts a diverse domestic and international audience of Judicial Officers, Court Managers, Court Clerks, and Technologists. The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) is seeking ideas for presentations that stimulate the conference attendees to action in using technology to resolve problems and enhance service.
NCSC invites practitioners, scholars and the private sector to participate in the educational programs at the Court Technology Conference 2011. The focus as always is on innovative implementations of technologies to all aspects of court business. There is an emphasis on how technologies transform all levels of courts, all sizes of courts, all types of cases, and the work by members of the court and constituent communities.
Detailed information on submitting a presentation at CTC 2011 can be downloaded (PDF) by clicking HERE.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Florida moving into e-filing "slowly" starting January 1
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
E-signed and e-delivered, but not e-sealed?
Signed, sealed and delivered is more than a Stevie Wonder song, it represents the attestation of an action or record of a court dating back centuries. Technology, however, has outpaced the days of wax and impressions. For that reason, several state legislatures have have had to go back and change the laws of their states to allow their courts more latitude. legislatures in Oklahoma (HB 2253 of 2004), Iowa (HB 579 of 2009), and Michigan (SB 720 of 2010) all authorized all courts in their state to e-seal. Texas in 2007 (SB 229) gave its district court the authority to create a seal electronically, thus allowing the courts to transfer, store, and locate documents with greater efficiency.
This year, Nevada enters into the e-seal fray. SB 6 authorizes the electronic reproduction of the seal of a court (current law requires either impressing the seal on the document or impressing the seal on a substance attached to the document). The bill is currently pending in the Senate Committee on Judiciary.
Cross-posted at Gavel to Gavel blog
Thursday, December 23, 2010
FL: Mandatory e-filing in criminal cases
Cross-posted at Gavel to Gavel blog
Monday, November 29, 2010
Court Tech Bulletin's New Home
Monday, August 30, 2010
SEARCH Launches New JIEM Website
JIEM 4.0 – developed through funding from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) is being released in Fall 2007. It is an evolution of the current web-based tool which has proven to be a popular and effective requirements-gathering resource. The release has been driven by consistent user feedback that has demonstrated the need for functionality that will soon be available in the new Eclipse-based JIEM tool. This functionality:
- Improves the Tools usability and efficiency
- Supports more rapid and inexpensive addition of new features in the future
- Requires no connection to the Internet, running locally on the users workstation
- Allows for easier sharing of exchange models with other users
- Provides more robust support for XML and integration with other modeling and development tools
- Allows considerable user customization of the tools look and feel
- Employs many "rich client" features that users experience in other modeling tools.
Visit the JIEM website to learn more.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Appellate Court E-Filing - 2010
We also became recently aware that the Supreme Court of Georgia is allowing members in good standing are allowed to register to E-file. In an article by the Savannah Morning News, Chief Justice Carol Hunstein
was quoted:
What we’re talking about here is a revolutionary change that is a win-win situation for the Court and for the litigants,” Hunstein.said. The parties will save time and money by no longer having to print, copy and deliver paper documents. No more fighting Atlanta traffic to get those documents into our Clerk’s office by the 4:30 filing deadline. Details about the system can be found at: http://www.gasupreme.us/efile/index.php
Paper on Demand Case Study
NCSC releases 22nd edition of Future Trends in State Courts
A limited number of free printed copies of Future Trends 2010 are available by contacting the National Center at 1-800-616-6164. In addition, the National Center is offering a CD containing electronic versions of this year edition as well as the 2000-09 editions. The publication can also be accessed online at: http://www.ncsconline.org/D_KIS/Trends/
Monday, July 26, 2010
Indiana Looks for New Appellate CMS
The Division of State Court Administration STAD is responsible for delivering information technology solutions to the Appellate Courts of the State of Indiana defined collectively as the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, and Tax Court and to related judicial agencies, including the Clerk’s Office.
STAD is seeking proposals for the delivery of an Appellate Case Management System CMS, with public access and electronic case filing capabilities, for the State’s Appellate Courts. The PNCO website with relevant document links is located at: http://www.in.gov/judiciary/admin/pnco.html
Editor's note: even if you will never issue an appellate court request for proposal, one might want to collect these documents for future reference and ideas for your own RFP
Friday, July 16, 2010
Comments on Courtroom Technology
Friday, July 9, 2010
Mastering the Unpredictable
The book brings together for the first time in one volume ideas that address this issue. To read a summary go to the authors, Keith D. Swensons blog at: http://kswenson.wordpress.com/2010/04/14/launching-mastering-the-unpredictable/
The book's website is: http://www.masteringtheunpredictable.com/page1.php
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Why the Future Is Not Paper - Second in a Series
Say for example a person has a judgment later set aside. The original judgment document is still there as the written case record. But later when the document becomes invalid, wouldn’t it be great if the original document could display a link maybe even a flashing icon to the later and more current order? Of course
it would. The electronic document world can and should be information dynamic. The electronic legal research companies are providing tools that automatically perform cite and currency checks against statutory and case law. Why wouldn't the courts take advantage of this capability in the documents submitted for action? Hyper-links and icons can indicate whether the citation is accurate and when the statute was changed.
Future electronic documents could also provide similar checks against the appropriate databases for a persons’ status say if they were on probation or had a civil protection order in another jurisdiction. The accuracy checks could be done dynamically when the document is displayed and in turn, reduces the need to capture this information in the court’s case management system. Now we know the argument is that the original document shouldn't be changed because it represents the actual case submissions and that status must be preserved for potential appellate review. We would in turn argue that the reference links could be filtered or “turned-off” when used in an appellate or similar context. Again, it is dynamic. Can your “dead-tree” document do that?
Next – how do you verify a paper document?
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
New Website for US Federal Courts
Survey Targets Courts Using Social Media
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Why the Future Is Not Paper - First in a Series
One very interesting approach was recently posted by Microsoft Research. The system is called Pivot and it uses the DeepZoom and Silverlight technology that has been shown in recent years. It is difficult to explain. For several video presentations on the new technology go to: http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/pivotviewer/
Pivot uses JPEG images and so after seeing the demonstrations please note that there are several software applications that can convert PDF pages to images. One that I tested successfully is Office Converter: http://www.officeconvert.com/
Iowa EDMS Makes Progress
"The Plymouth County test took longer than the 90-day pilot period so staff members could fix glitches before expanding the system to other counties, Bosier said. 'We're trying to go about this very carefully and do it properly,' he said. "I'd rather it be a little slower getting there, instead of rushing through and getting it wrong."
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Recrafting Government as an Open Platform
"Cultural changes are necessary to create an Internet-aware government, the document says. A vision must be created by leadership, outlining guiding principles that must then be enforced."The article also goes on to state:
"Audits should focus on outcomes, while enabling departments to achieve those goals using their own means. Opening up access to social media tools may help them to meet their objectives, by helping governmental organisations to listen to feedback from traditionally under-represented groups, such as front line workers. Other tools that could help to achieve positive outcomes include real-time communication tools such as live chat."You can read the entire article at:
http://www.itjoblog.co.uk/2010/05/government-open-platform.html
The entire Centre for Technology Policy Research report: Open Government, Some Next Steps for the UK can be downloaded in PDF from:
http://ctpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/CTPR-Report-Open-Government.pdf
Social Media and the Courts
http://www.ncsc.org/topics/media-relations/social-media-and-the-courts/resource-guide.aspx
Friday, May 21, 2010
Videoconference Appellate Argument Website
First, they have created a time-synchronization presentation between the written and video transcript that makes it easy to navigate through the argument.
Second, now Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor, is participating via a videoconference link. The presiding judge has some kind of signal from her when she needs to interrupt to ask a question.
The web page can be viewed at Arar v. Ashcroft argument web page at C-SPAN.
Lawyer Uses YouTube for Video Depositions
"John Denenea, Jr. has essentially incorporated the video deposition into his opposition to summary judgment. As most lawyers know, a video deposition can be much more effective than the transcribed version because the viewer can observe witness behavior, including those long pauses before answering questions that do not appear on the transcribed version."The article: Filing civil pleadings on YouTube contains links to the pleadings and one of the videos.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Alaska Issues RFP
The Alaska Court System is soliciting for an Appellate Court Case Management System. Sealed proposals will be accepted in accordance with terms and conditions of the RFP until 2:30 p.m. AST Monday, June 28, 2010.
Details are posted on the State of Alaska Online Public Notice website.