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.
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...
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.
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| Alpine Texas Federal Courthouse |
The US Government General Services Administration’s 18F Team
performed an “11-week Path Analysis on the federal judiciary’s Case Management
and Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) system. Our research focused on user needs,
business agility, organization and processes, and the Administrative Office of
the U.S. Courts’ (AO) culture and legal mandates.”
We discuss below.
Full details and application are available through NeoGov The posting closes on June 25, 2021.
The Chief Information Officer’s (CIO) role is to provide vision and leadership for identifying, acquiring and implementing information technologies for the Nevada Appellate Courts. The CIO consults and collaborates with the State Court Administrator/Director of the AOC, Clerk of Court, Supreme Court Justices, the Judicial Council Technology Committee, Supreme Court IT Steering Committee, and other committees as necessary to develop statewide information technology policies, strategies, and standards.
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| Abraham Lincoln as a young lawyer |
We have been saving a lot (and I mean “a lot) of interesting items to share in recent weeks. We have news about court data analytics in California, an academic paper questioning the use of arrest data in policy development, a new justice index ranking report for USA courts, a report on Fines and Fees policies, the application of microeconomics for policy development, the NIEM JSON Specification, Version 5.0 release candidate 2, Ohio Court News on sealed records, England and Wales reports on the results of their divorce online system, applying the PDF A-4 standard for permanent digital records, and an excellent Tiny Chat.
We learned from our friends earlier this week that the Florida courts are celebrating the 10th Anniversary of their E-filing Portal program. We will start with some history thanks to the summary they wrote in this year’s annual report or, if you wish, they have posted a three-minute history summary video online here.
Last month, the Arnold Ventures group released a report titled “We Need Criminal Justice Data That Doesn’t Exist. Here’s How the Biden Administration Can FixIt.”
This is a subject near and dear to me as I have been working on much of this for a long time. I agree
with many parts of the report. However,
I was disappointed to see that the full report missed many standards and frameworks that have been
previously built?
More below...
For CTC 2021, we're taking a hybrid approach to the Center's premier court technology conference. You can attend online or join us in Columbus, Ohio, from September 28–29, 2021.
While we don't have all the details ironed out, we're
looking forward to hosting attendees no matter how you choose to attend.
The Justia legal information company has posted a compendium of state court Covid-19 operations in all 50 states.
They write that “State court systems across the country have significantly altered their operations in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Many courts initially limited proceedings to only the most essential and urgent matters, such as arraignments and restraining order hearings."
"While most jurisdictions are beginning to resume at least some of their normal operations, courts often are still striving to conduct as many proceedings remotely as possible. Jury trials are suspended or limited in some locations, although most states at least have planned strategies for resuming them.”
Click here to access the guide.
Congratulations to Justia for providing this useful
resource.
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Also thank you to the US Federal Courts news for posting the picture of Chief Judge James K. Bredar wearing a plastic face shield and sit behind plexiglass when jury trials resume in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland that we show above.
https://www.uscourts.gov/news/2020/08/20/courts-restore-operations-covid-19-creates-new-normal
The IJIS Institute has scheduled two virtual Zoom seminars for Tuesday, June 15, 2021. They write:
"From incident to final resolution and beyond, every action our courts take relies on accurate, complete, and timely data to best-inform decisions about people, cases, process, and policy. Join your colleagues from practice and industry at our technology summit on Tuesday, June 15th to dive into our courts' multifaceted data discussion - what we have and what we need - and the impact across the justice system and our communities."
We share some news and notes in this week’s CTB post. We note a speech-to-text AI demo video, text reminders, an event on transitioning your workforce back to the courthouse, yet another article on "Zoom courts", an NCSC Tiny Chat regarding court cell phone policy, and the NCSC website on pandemic response webinars that were recorded in 2020.
Earlier this month I was reading the opening day story about my Chicago Cubs baseball club and stumbled on the news that they have installed new AI-enhanced person scanning devices (pictured). The big benefit of this new technology is that one does not have to remove keys, mobile phone, or have your bag separately scanned. Great, right?
Details below...
My inbox received notices about three upcoming events that could be of interest to the court technology community. They are by Microsoft partner, Pythagoras in the UK; the Online Courtroom Project; and the latest in the World Justice Challenge 2021 competition. Additional details are listed below.
Microsoft announced an AI-powered live transcription service (AI we can use BTW) in Microsoft Teams, answering Zoom’s new feature. That got me thinking that they are not alone, as we share below...
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Via press release, March 16, 2021.
NIJ has released a four-part series on Artificial
Intelligence (AI) in the Criminal Justice System.
Through the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, NIJ
has made available the following final technical reports (these reports are the
result of NIJ-funded projects but were not published by the U.S. Department
of Justice).
The third article in the series specifically discusses AI in the criminal courts.
Legal technology writer Molly McDonough posted an article about the Utah Outreach Court (https://twitter.com/saltlakejustice). That court takes a courtroom to the litigants, in some instances to the homeless person's campsite, using a repurposed mobile command center vehicle and tents.
Published by press release on March 4, 2021, in US Courts News
"Even as vaccines begin to protect the public from the coronavirus (COVID-19), one of the Judiciary’s biggest priorities is ensuring that the air inside courtrooms and hallways remains safe as courts schedule more in-person legal proceedings.
The Freakonomics website has a page that discusses the quote in the title of this post. It is
obviously appropriate for the courts in this time of the Covid-19 pandemic, but
I have used it in another context, when a new case, document, or e-filing
systems are being introduced into a court.
I explain below…
My friend Bob Ambrogi asked for comment during last Friday’s Legaltech Week Journalists’ Roundtable (an excellent discussion every week about our court customers). The discussion turned briefly to Jason Tashea's proposal via the DayOneProject.org initiative titled “Digitizing State Courts, Expanding Access to Justice”. The following is my partial reply to the question asked.
I applaud Mr. Tashea for thinking about the problem. But I think there is a lot more to consider and there are additional options? I explain…
Winter 2021
There is a massive amount of court technology news this month. We learned about, US Federal Courts response to the Covid-19 pandemic, conference news from the Innovating Justice 2021 and Legalweek 2021 events, California’s CourtStack initiative, Mark Beer’s upcoming talk on AI support for judicial decision making, Seattle and King County’s impact and response to the pandemic caseload, the NACM video podcast on Teleworking, and proposed USA federal government rules on digital format archiving.
Most of our readers have seen the Zoom filer mishap online video
known as “I’m not a cat”. The story even made the news in Germany and late-night TV shows. First, I want to congratulate the Judge for
handling the problem, but I have a different view of how we can learn from
this?
Join us virtually, February 17-18, 2021, for the IJIS Institute National Symposium. This event will highlight national priority initiatives benefiting all levels of government and brings together industry solution providers, government leaders, and representatives from nonprofit and academic organizations to network and collaborate in a neutral, non-sales environment. The National Symposium offers the unique opportunity to hear first-hand from state and local government officials and Federal government leaders.
We’re happy to announce that all session replays from eCourts 2020 are now available at https://vimeo.com/showcase/8000351
Here are some highlights:
If you couldn’t make the conference, missed a session, or want to share a memorable session with a colleague, they’re all ready for you to watch in our eCourts 2020 Virtual Session Showcase.
Get the latest eCourts 2020 information at e-Courts.org