Eight Rules of E-Filing: Conclusion

The goal of this series was to expand the thinking about E-filing beyond the delivery of static civil case documents via a web server (the most common system).  E-filing must support all case types and the transition from a paper records to an electronic records foundation.

In turn, electronic documents do not have to be restricted to the limitations of paper documents.  Formats, organization, and data capture/extraction can all take advantage of the dynamic environment that electronic information allows. In other words, as I often teach in classes and seminars, better information can and will result in better decisions and in turn, justice.  And while this goal will never be fully realized, E-filing and related technologies will move us closer.

Last, for your convenience, the entire series of articles have been compiled into a PDF document that can be downloaded.  (see the "File" command in the upper right corner to download or make a copy)

Links to all of the articles in the series:

Introduction
Rule Number 1: All documents created by the court are stored in the electronic document management system (EDMS) are designated as “the official record”.
Rule Number 2: User authentication must be designed into the overall e-filing solution.
Rule Number 3: Design Backwards
Rule Number 4: Court document creation must be integrated with the CMS.
Rule Number 5: Efficiency.  E-filing should facilitate more efficient court processes and decisions.
Rule Number 6: E-Filing Must Support the Self-Represented
Rule Number 7: E-Filing Should Support Government to Court Communications
Rule Number 8: E-filing and “Paper on Demand”

This and That - October, 2011

CTC-2011 

The conference was a great success again this year.  For education session presentations and articles go to: http://www.ctc2011.org/Attendees/Program-at-a-glance.aspx and then click on the session name.

Registration Still Open for Privacy and Public Access Conference

Our partner, the Center for Legal and Court Technology has openings for the 8th Conference on Privacy and Public Access to Court Records to be held in Williamsburg, Virginia from November 3-4, 2011.  For more see the conference website at: http://www.privacy.legaltechcenter.net/aspx/Conferences.aspx

Florida Senate: Make non-efilers in courts pay a 3.5% surcharge?

Cross-posted at Gavel to Gavel blog

 I mentioned last week that the Florida Senate was going to meet tomorrow (October 18) and that the agenda included an item entitled

Presentations on issues related to electronic filing of court documents

I came across a (possibly) related piece of legislation: SB 410 of 2012. The bill contains two provisions:

(1) A litigant who is required to electronically file a court or other legal document in a court of this state, in the Division of Administrative Hearings, or in the Office of the Judges of Compensation Claims shall pay a surcharge in addition to any other cost incurred if the litigant files a paper document instead of electronically filing the document. The surcharge shall equal 3.5 percent of the cost of filing the document electronically. (2) This section does not apply to a litigant who is indigent as determined by s. 27.52, Florida Statutes.

The obvious question is "who is required to electronically file a court or other legal document"? SB 170 of 2011, signed into law in June, requires prosecutors and public defenders to e-file documents with the clerk of court and report back on March 1, 2012 on the implementation of the program to the legislature (click here for prior posts). A 2009 statute (SB 1718) required the clerks of court to implement an electronic filing process by March 1, 2010. Live coverage of the Senate Judiciary Committee e-filing presentation can be found here.

Eight Rules of E-filing: Rule #8

Rule Number 8:  E-filing and “Paper on Demand”.  

E-filing (and more specifically electronic documents) provide flexibility in the ability for judges and staff to consume content.  A widely held view (see note 1 below) is that if the judge is better served by printing documents; they should be allowed to print the documents that are needed for the work at hand.  But when done working with those documents they are recycled and/or shredded.  They aren’t maintained as the official record.

CTC-2011 - What Did You See? (Updated -11/10/11)

Last week's Court Technology Conference (the 12th since 1984) was a gathering of court technology professionals, enthusiasts, and the curious in Long Beach, California.  Many of the conference presentations have already been made available at:

http://www.ctc2011.org/Attendees/Program-at-a-glance.aspx 
(Click on the session title to open a window with links to the presentation(s) if available).

I for one very much enjoyed Korean Judge Hoshin Won's presentation on tablet and surface computing including a tour of their e-Courts Experience Center.  A picture of a virtual courtroom concept demonstrating touch-screen and "tele-presence" technology in their e-Courts Experience Center is shown above.

A video of the e-Court Experience Hall and presentations are available at:

http://www.ctc2011.org/Attendees/CLCT-program.aspx

What did you see that you would like the CTB readers to know about?  We invite you to share your experiences by posting a comment below.

CTC-2011 Daily Update

For up-to-date information as to what is happening in Long Beach, California go to CTC Daily Update web page at: http://icmelearning.com/ctc/mailer/daily-update.html

Hope to say hi to many of you this week!

Eight Rules of E-Filing: Rule #7

E-Filing Should Support Government to Court Communications

The vast majority of E-filing systems focus upon civil case matters.  While there are many reasons I believe that besides vendor funding, this focus greatly reduces project political risk to the courts.  Judges have more discretion in managing civil cases and the parties can agree to work together to support new systems and procedures for everyone’s benefit.  In fact, this is how court E-filing started in 1990 in the Delaware Chancery Court.

But criminal and other cases involving human services and other government departments and programs are a different animal for E-filing.  In criminal cases the attorneys are continually looking for procedural mistakes and other errors in order dismiss cases and free or reduce the penalties for their clients.  In other words, the attorneys truly embrace their adversarial role with court procedures as well as the opposing side.  As a result, and along with funding challenges, there are only a handful of criminal case E-filing systems in the USA today.

Court Automation Funding Compilation Report

Our NCSC Technology Department's excellent summer intern and future law school student, Ms. Emily Whitaker, scoured the Internet and legal research resources to compile a list of state court automation funding. We can report that the majority of state courts have implemented some type of automation support fee or fund. The results were compiled into a PDF spreadsheet format and are available at:

http://www.ncsc.org/Services-and-Experts/Areas-of-expertise/Technology/2011-Technology-Survey-Results.aspx

US Federal Courts Train Judges Online

The August, 2011 edition of the US Federal Court's newsletter, The Third Branch, contains a brief article on their "Chambers Online Automation Training (COAT)" system.  The article states:


"The audio/video training modules fall into 13 general lesson areas. Few run longer than 10 minutes, many clock in at around 3 minutes. Each module is organized by job-related function and includes a demonstration and a guided simulation.


COAT began with a desire by the Judicial Conference Information Technology Committee to create better IT training for judges and chambers staff. It is part of the FJC/AO Judicial IT Training Initiative."

New Hampshire Issues E-Filing RFI

The New Hampshire Judicial Branch has issued an RFI for E-filing and related services.  A copy of the RFI can be obtained at:  http://admin.state.nh.us/purchasing/specRFP.asp?rfpID=6892

Eight Rules of E-Filing: Rule #6

E-Filing Must Support the Self-Represented

To date most court E-filing has focused on civil litigation for a number of reasons.  First, a majority of non-small-claims civil litigation is serviced by attorneys.  This well-educated user base is generally motivated to reduce their operational costs.  And with the use of E-filing in the USA Federal Courts being widespread, they are becoming very familiar with the technology.  But state courts in particular are increasingly experiencing a significant transition in case participants to more and more self-representation.  A recent compilation by the Knowledge and Information Services staff here at the NCSC reported that 66% of all cases heard in Minnesota courts involved the self-represented with a high of 81% of family cases.  And Connecticut reported a 101% increase in the number of civil cases involving self-represented from 2005 to 2010.

The Search for Quiet

Courtroom proceedings are an often intense environment during which one strains to hear every nuance of spoken communication.  And while there are many problems with courtroom acoustics, especially in large courtrooms, the tapping of keyboards can be disturbing.

In 2007 Judge Michael Marcus from the Circuit Court of Multnomah County Oregon shared his views on his quest for a quiet keyboard.  That quest continues to this day.  But as expected, there are two recent technology innovations that could be considered as a solution to this problem.

Eight Rules of E-Filing: Rule #5

Efficiency.  E-filing should facilitate more efficient court processes and decisions. 

First, once E-filing is implemented courts should re-engineered their rules and processes to take advantage of the new capabilities.  A good example is the court in Baltimore, Maryland that adjudicated thousands of asbestos matters.  The judge worked with the attorneys to group the electronic submissions 10 at a time containing identical facts (same shipyard, timeframe, and injury) and in turn modified the review presentation screen so that he could more quickly review and approve the civil settlement for the filers.

Federal Court Self-Filer's Examined

The July, 2011 edition of The Third Branch newsletter contains an important article summarizing a study on current services to self-represented and "Pro-se" filers offered by US federal courts.  The article: IN-DEPTH: Leveling the Playing Field: Help for Self-Filers reports on both automated and direct self-help services offered.  One side-bar in the article noted:

"...A disturbingly large number of litigants come to the Clinic with basic reading and comprehension problems; some cannot even read Court orders and the opposition's filings.  Others can decipher the words in the documents but cannot comprehend even the simplest of Court orders."

The article also updates the Central District of Illinois project for Pro-Se E-Filing for Prisoners that was previously highlighted in the CTB.

This article is highly recommended.

Eight Rules of E-Filing: Rule #4

Rule Number 4: Court document creation must be integrated with the CMS.  

A great percentage of documents in a case file are produced by the court.  Therefore it is imperative that a court e-filing system seamlessly interact with the court’s case management system (CMS) and word processing capabilities.

This and That in Court Technology - August 2011

Oklahoma Funds CMS Via Increased Court Fees

The Tulsa World newspaper reports that an increase in court filing fees from $10 to $25 has resulted in approximately $32 million dollars used to fund their statewide court case management system.

Wolfram Releases Computable Document Format

In continuing work on "useful" electronic documents, the Wolfram company has released a new format called Computable Document Format that can be used to create interactive reports.  Sounds perfect for project like Smart Sentencing.

New York State E-Courts Projects Noted

The New York Times newspaper recently highlighted work being done by the New York State Courts to transition to electronic records.

The Future of Court Reporters is Explored

In an article posted on the Law.com blog, "Are Court Reporters 'Medival Scribes' Headed for Extinction", issues regarding the technology and services are discussed.

ABA Survey finds e-Filing and e-Service on the Rise

Thanks to a note via Kendall Collins Smith of Lexis-Nexis (one of the sponsors) we learned of the release of a recent survey created by the American Bar Association on Litigation and Courtroom Technology including the use of e-filing.

Eight Rules of E-Filing: Rule #3

Rule Number 3: Design Backwards 

Information presentation should be designed around the work tasks that a judge or clerk performs.  Malcolm Gladwell in his article, “The Social Life of Paper” explains:

“It is only if paper's usefulness is in the information written directly on it that it must be stored. If its usefulness lies in the promotion of ongoing creative thinking, then, once that thinking is finished, the paper becomes superfluous. The solution to our paper problem, they write, is not to use less paper but to keep less paper. Why bother filing at all? Everything we know about the workplace suggests that few if any knowledge workers ever refer to documents again once they have filed them away, which should come as no surprise, since paper is a lousy way to archive information. It's too hard to search and it takes up too much space. Besides, we all have the best filing system ever invented, right there on our desks -- the personal computer.”

8th Conference on Privacy and Public Access to Court Records

The Center for Legal and Court Technology and the National Center for State Courts, with the assistance of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, have announced the eighth edition of the Privacy and Public Access to Court Records Conference to be held in Williamsburg, Virginia on November 3-4, 2011.  Some topics from the agenda include an update on state policies, technology trends and issues panel, social media, issues relating to family law and privacy, international perspectives, and a special presentation on an experimental initiative with streaming video in a Massachusetts court.

CTC-2011 Educational Agenda Posted

The educational session agenda for the CTC-2011 conference have been posted.  There is more information coming but I can share a few highlights.  First, CITOC has created an entire track of sessions for court CIO's that addresses the entire life-cycle of court IT management.  Second, there are many sessions sharing innovations in the court automation and how courts have transitioned to new technology, and re-engineered processes and their organization to take advantage of the new electronic world.  Third, there are many sessions looking toward the future including next generation technology standards, new information sharing approaches and the application of new technologies in the courtroom. And one can't forget that CTC has the largest court technology vendor show in the world with all the latest systems and ideas.

CTC-2011 will be held from October 4-6, 2011 at the Long Beach, California Convention Center.

Full descriptions of the sessions will be posted in the near future.

Eight Rules of E-Filing: Rule #2

Rule Number 2: User authentication must be designed into the overall e-filing solution.

For too long court E-filing has been generally limited to civil case matters.  This is perfectly understandable from a legal viewpoint since the parties and/or court can simply agree to its use.  But today we should design E-filing systems to deal with all case types such as criminal and juvenile that has a decidedly greater need for user verification.

Eight Rules of E-Filing: Rule #1

Rule Number 1: All documents created by the court are stored in the electronic document management system (EDMS) are designated as “the official record”.

Why this rule?  Because many courts have and continue to maintain dual paper and electronic systems have reported that they have not benefited from their document management systems - simply because they are maintaining two systems.  Needless to say, doubling the number of systems is not a recipe for efficiency.  And while is takes time to transition from the paper file room to the electronic document system, the sooner that the conversion takes place, the better.

2011 NIEM National Training Event

IT professionals from government and industry will gather in Philadelphia to learn more about the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM), sharing their implementation experiences, celebrating their accomplishments, demonstrating helpful development tools, providing domain updates, and discussing effective strategies for information sharing.  Among the five concurrent tracks, keynote speakers, and special events, here are a few highlights to pique the interest of state and local court leaders:

• Oklahoma AOC Information Exchange:  A Use Case for NIEM Enterprise Implementation
• National Association of State CIOs:  State and Local Panel
• Human Services Collaborations:  Information Exchange Across the Digital Divide
• LinkedIn’s Vice President of Strategic Alliances

Visit the NIEM 2011 Training Event website to view the entire NIEM NTE agenda, register, and reserve your accommodations at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown.

Eight Rules of E-Filing (Introduction)

As in any technology project, the “devil” is in implementation and acceptance of the new system by the judges and court staff.  E-filing affects every part of the court operation since it transforms the filing system and the documents used to make court decisions.

Case Management Systems (CMS) have traditionally automated the registry/docket (historical event record), participants, and scheduling /task control and has left the document filing system for separate image document management programs.  This has primarily been done because of cost and the lack of workflow and task control capabilities in traditional CMS.

But I believe that this is also a remnant of the courts traditional organizational division between the docket/registry/indexing function and the document filing system.  Separate staff and separate processes are a common organizational structure in many clerk's offices.

Even today a great majority of courts still maintain physical case files.  And workflow in manual file systems has meant physically moving the file folder from person to person and office to office.  In many courts the file folder also serves as the case event registry.  This function is addressed by a printed registry form grid on the folder cover the list of documents contained within.  The advantage for this approach is that when one works on the contents of the folder, the data capture and presentation is literally in one’s hands.

Bestselling author, Malcolm Gladwell explains in his article “The Social Life of Paper” the attractiveness of this approach in a collaborative work environment like the court:

“Because paper is a physical embodiment of information, actions performed in relation to paper are, to a large extent, made visible to one's colleagues. Reviewers sitting around a desk could tell whether a colleague was turning toward or away from a report; whether she was flicking through it or setting it aside. Contrast this with watching someone across a desk looking at a document on a laptop. What are they looking at? Where in the document are they? Are they really reading their e-mail? Knowing these things is important because they help a group coordinate its discussions and reach a shared understanding of what is being discussed.” 

But the same capability can be done with even more ease in an E-filing/Electronic Document Management system as will be discussed in later posts in this series.

E-filing, document, and case management functionality cannot be separated.  Many courts have tried what is now termed an “e-delivery” systems.  This is where the documents are electronically submitted only to transfer the work of printing, collating, and storing the paper into the physical file folder to the court staff.  One can imagine the additional workload for court staff that negates the initial efficiencies of E-filing.  These projects have been shuttered after a period of time because E-filing did not reduce but rather increased the clerk's staff workload.

Over the next several weeks we will offer eight rules of E-filing systems implementation.  However, please note that there are many additional factors in any successful implementation as defined in classic project management structures including proper governance, budget, testing, and communication that cannot be ignored.  So please keep that in mind as you read our "rules".

International Conference on Electronic Litigation 2011

The Singapore Academy of Law are organising the “International Conference on Electronic Litigation 2011” in Singapore this August. The Organizing Committee has extended a very warm invitation to attend the Conference which will be held on 11 and 12 August 2011 at the Marina Mandarin Hotel, Singapore.

The Conference will feature two keynote speakers, Lord Justice Rupert Jackson of the Court of Appeal in the UK and Judge of Appeal Justice V K Rajah of the Supreme Court of Singapore. The key objective of the Conference is to gather legal luminaries from all over the world to discuss and confer on international developments in electronic litigation. These include electronic discovery, electronic hearings, the preservation of electronic evidence and the duty on litigants and lawyers to preserve such evidence. Other topics in this rapidly evolving area of the law include a discussion on recent developments in computer forensics and common issues faced by computer forensic experts. Judges, legal practitioners, in-house counsel and academics from all over the world will be invited to attend the Conference. Speakers and panelists will be drawn from the Judiciary, the legal industry and academia to represent a full range of views.

New Hampshire Seeks E-Courts Staff

The New Hampshire Administrative Office of the Courts have posted two job announcements.

The first announcement (pdf) is for a two year appointment as the E-Courts Project Manager.

And the second job posting (pdf) is a one year appointment for an E-Courts Statutes/Rules Analyst.

For additional information, a summary of the courts 2010-2012 Information Technology Plan (pdf) can be viewed/downloaded by clicking here.