Court Case Management Systems Part 18: Decision Support

In the previous post in our series we discussed Court Case Management Systems (CCMS) Dashboards that support case process, management information, and decisions.  In other words, information that makes our “court process factory” more efficient.  And the key purpose of case management is to organize data (and insure completeness) so that it can in turn be converted into information for cases to be adjudicated and decisions rendered.

But what’s next?  We think that one part of the answer is to integrate and extend the judicial decision support functionality into the CCMS itself. We explain below…

ROSS – Artificial Intelligent Lawyer

IBM Watson - Home of ROSS

Earlier this week I heard about ROSS for the first time from the brilliant Snorri Ogata of the Los Angeles Superior Court at the NAPCO Conference in Cleveland.  So I had to learn more…

This and That in Court Technology – September, 2016

Attendees enjoying e-Courts

We share news about the e-Courts 2016 Conference, the Federal Courts test of prisoner electronic access kiosks, news in the search for a quiet keyboard - now in portable form, questions raised about Australian use of court videoconferencing, a Blockchain notarization service, and a new court podcast in Florida.

NCSC Court Tech Positions Announced

The National Center for State Courts - Court Consulting Services Division in collaboration with Technology Services has openings for two positions:



1. Senior Court Technology Consultant, Band W316; Salary depends on qualification.
2. Principal Court Technology Consultant, Band D418; Salary depends on qualification.

Positions are open until filled; however, for first consideration, submit applications by Monday, October 3, 2016 until 5:00 pm. EDT.

To apply for any of these positions, go to our web page at: www.ncsc.org/jobs and click on NCSC domestic jobs. First time users will need to register before applying.  Positions are being advertised internally and externally at the same time.

Argentina's Center for Judicial Information

For many years I have been an admirer for the Argentina Judiciary’s Center for Judicial Information website.  I think that it is one of the best judicial websites in the world and it is one that should be studied and monitored by other judiciaries.  Via our good friend, Mr. Luis Maria Palma, President of E-Justicia Latinoamerica and a Vice-President of the International Association for Court Administration we were able to contact Ms. Maria Bourdin, who late last year was named as head of their Ministry of Communication and Open Government.  She was kind enough to answer our questions and share information regarding their excellent court website.

CSI Announces Intellidact LBX™ Machine Learning Technology

I am happy to share a press release from one of our leading court technology vendors this week.  CSI has been working with courts for more than 20 years in support and the development of automated redaction technology.  Their new system provides a powerful way for courts to bridge the gap between paper and electronic data.  Congratulations to our good friends in Orlando for this significant achievement.

The full press release follows below:

Michigan Releases Statewide E-Filing RFP

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_Island_Light_(Michigan)

On August 25, 2016, State Court Administrator Milton L. Mack, Jr. announced:

“I am pleased to report that the Michigan Supreme Court released a Request for Proposals (RFP) today, seeking a vendor to supply a statewide system that will allow litigants to file cases electronically from anywhere at any time.  The RFP also asks that vendors submit proposals for an electronic document management system so that courts can receive and manage e-filed documents.

Release of the RFP is a major step forward in our efforts to help trial courts across Michigan benefit from the potential improvements in efficiency that e-filing can provide, including reduced handling of paper files and reduced need for manual data entry of case information.

Law and Courts in an Online World Conference – Melbourne, Australia

I am happy to announce that I will be speaking along with good friend Judge Dory Reiling and many others at the Law and Courts in an Online World Conference that will be held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, November 8 & 9, 2016.  They have announced that an early-bird discount fee for the conference is available until August 31.

South Carolina Courts Seeks IT Director

We learned today that the job announcement for the South Carolina Judicial Department IT Director has been released. The closing date for application is September 9, 2016.  The announcement job responsibilities description starts:

"Under limited supervision, the Director of Information Technology is a member of the executive management team and is responsible for providing leadership in the development of technology solutions to support SCJD's mission, goals, and objectives."

The full job announcement with submission instructions is available online here.

This and That in Court Technology – August 2016

In this edition of "This and That" we share E-Courts conference updates, US Federal Courts updating their E-filing rules, IJIS Institute Mid-Year Update Meeting, the ABA Future of Legal Services report, information regarding the new Microsoft Two-Step Authentication app, and last a handy home improvement app I recently used.

Storage, SSD’s and the Future of Court Records

A recent article stated “SSD prices plummet again, close in on HDD”.  Translated that means that solid state “flash” storage that runs much faster than traditional hard disk drives (HDD’s) is closing in on price parity.  But what does this mean for court records?  We discuss and speculate below.

Judge John Tanzer and eJudiciary

Our good friend, Sir Henry Brooke posted an excellent post on the impact that fellow jurist John Tanzer had on the adoption of IT in the English courts.

EOIR RFI Q&A Deadline for Questions and Responses Extended

The US Department of Justice Executive Office for Immigration Review RFI has extended the date and time for accepting question until Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at 2:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time.

The deadline for responses has been extended to Monday, August 15, 2016.at 2:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time.

For more on the RFI see our earlier post at: https://courttechbulletin.blogspot.com/2016/07/rfi-issued-for-us-department-of-justice.html 

More Developments in Blockchain Technology and the Law

Blockchain technology or as it is also known as, “distributed ledger”, is the subject of a great deal of thinking and development this year.  We wrote about it earlier in the year and now we share some recent work being done at MIT Media Lab’s lawchain.org project.

Connecting the E-Filing “Pipes”

Craig VanBrussel, CTO for the First Judicial Circuit of Florida wrote after listening to the recent online Court Tech Futures webinar about how they are closing the loop with their E-filing pipes.

RFI Issued for US Department of Justice EOIR

ZYGOS Consulting (ZYGOS) in conjunction with the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) in support of the ECAS Program has issued a Request for Information for the US Department of Justice Executive Office of Immigration Review. (https://www.justice.gov/eoir )   

US Federal Judiciary Cites Technology for Efficiency

US Federal Courthouse in Denver

In a press release on July 6, 2016 the US Federal Courts cited multiple court technology initiatives as part of their overall efficiency and cost reduction strategy.

Webinar and Other News – July, 2016

News about a free court tech webinar, more on CMS events and decisions, Margaret Hagan on Legal Services Bots, and a couple of security warnings.

Court Case Management Events and Decision Mapping

Earlier this week I participated in the BPM and Case Management Global Summit conference with my good friend and colleague, John Matthias of the NCSC Court Services Division.  He shared some of his recent work on court case management systems including decision mapping.

JTC Webinar: Using Technology to Improve Pretrial Release Decision-Making

The Joint Technology Committee (JTC) will host a webinar next Tuesday, June 28 on technology and risk-assessment tools to support pretrial release decision-making.

e-Courts 2016 News

We share the latest news about the e-Courts 2016 Conference that will be held December 12-14, 2016 at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Court Contingency Planning

As they say, stuff happens.  So it is very important that courts develop a contingency plan to keep operating as much as possible.

Our guest blogger, Steve Smith, Technology Services Supervisor of the 13th Circuit Court for Boone and Callaway counties in Missouri, shares what they have developed.

Even More This and That in Court Technology – June, 2016

After I wrote the post last week a lot of new items of potential interest to court technologists appeared.  In this edition we share news from Microsoft, Facebook, the ODR 2016 Conference, the Tyler Excellence Awards, uses for E-Discovery Software, and a cleaned up software utility repository.

This and That in Court Technology – Early Summer 2016

At the beginning of summer 2016, we share court technology news from the IACA European Regional Conference, Mississippi mobile access to justice app plans, online juror research restriction, Colorado online court information access questions, and a really big new computer monitor.

Events, Baseball, and Better Court Statistics

Cases are made up of events that can be counted in additional detail.  And those individual events have characteristics that can also be quantified.  In this article I will discuss these concepts with an apology up front that I will be using a lot of the game of Baseball analogies with apologies to my friends who follow the game of Cricket.  That said…

Talking About Change: Getting from One Trapeze to Another

Guest author, Doug Leonard writes about change in this interesting post.

"It’s not so much that we’re afraid of change or so in love with the old ways, but it’s that place between that we fear. It is like being between two trapezes. It’s like Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There’s nothing to hold onto."
                                        --- Marilyn Ferguson, American Futurist

Trusted Digital Signatures

Our good friend Patrick Cormier, former CEO of the Canadian Centre for Court Technology, now Vice President for Business Development at Notarius wrote a great piece on Digital Signatures that he has allowed us to re-post below.  I think you will find it interesting...

Another Technology to Plan For: Blockchain Contracts

As we all know, courts have to deal with contracts between parties.  And courts also very often have to verify the authenticity of information.

There is a lot of work going on using Blockchain database technology.  So it is time to learn about and plan for its use in the justice system.  We discuss below.

Some News Notes

A busy couple of weeks.  But we wanted to share three notes about “The Free Law Project” Judicial Database, Microsoft’s partnership with the Legal Service Corporation and Pro Bono Net, and some recent legal action involving digital evidence.

A Response to Texas Criminal E-Filing Mandate Concerns

I received a link to an article in Texas Lawyer from our friend, new PhD Bill Raftery at Gavel to Gavel regarding a public hearing held on April 5, 2016 at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals regarding mandatory criminal case E-filing.  The article notes that the court has already made filing mandatory for their cases.  But they heard additional concerns that I will comment on:

Criminal Justice Identification in the Cloud

Courts have an unending problem with criminal defendant identification.  If one thinks about this issue for a minute, in many instances it is a benefit to the defendant to not be properly identified.  As most of you know, there have been biometric systems (fingerprint, face recognition for example) available for law enforcement, prosecutors, and courts for many years.  But there has been a significant initial cost barrier.  Last week I saw an interesting possible “cloud based” solution that may help.

Oregon iForms Project Simplifies Public Court Access

Earlier this year we found the following press release from the Oregon Judicial Branch on their OJD iForms project.  They wrote:

The Digital Paper E-Ink Device from Sony Surprises

Technology surprises appear every day… even when they are over two years old.  Last week I stumbled across the Sony Digital Paper device at the American Bar Association TechShow in Chicago.  In many ways this is the device in my opinion that many judges have been looking for.

“Managing Digital Evidence in Courts”

The COSCA/NACM Joint Technology Committee has issued a new report: “Managing Digital Evidence in Courts”.  The report identifies potential challenges and recommends steps courts should consider when receiving, evaluating, protecting, and presenting digital evidence, including video from body-worn cameras, private citizens, and other sources.

Click here to view and download the report.

This and That in Court Technology – March, 2016

Mecklenburg County Courtroom Tech

Court technology related news from North Carolina, Louisiana, Texas, Indiana, Arizona and the UK in this month's edition of This and That.

In the Matter of the George and Jane Jetson Family Case No. 20??-0000-DM

The Jetsons

The Michigan Bar Journal has given the CTB permission to republish an entertaining but I believe prescient article by the President of the Michigan Bar Association, President Lori A. Buiteweg.

CourtHack 2016 a Great Success!

This past weekend the NCSC team working with HackerNest held the first ever CourtHack event.  I can say without qualification that it was great!  More...

A List of State Court E-Filing Fees

Bill Raftery and I did some research this week that we want to share.  I have uploaded a new list for E-filing links.  But this time we have tried to include the costs/fees that are associated with the services.

Please share in the comments below if we made any mistakes or omissions so that everyone has the best information.

Click here to view/download the PDF list document - Updated, March 9, 2016.

How Courts Should Respond to a Cyber Attack

The COSCA/NACM Joint Technology Committee has issued a new report, Responding to a Cyber Attack.  The report notes that “accepting that courts will face cybersecurity incidents is essential. Prevention efforts are still important. However, prevention efforts must now be coupled with preparations to respond when the inevitable occurs.”

This and That in Court Technology – Late February 2016

A lot of news to share in this edition of our regular roundup of news and events.  We learned about Bots in the UK Courts, a new NCSC Report on Body Worn Cameras and the Courts, an Court Technology Director job opening in Seattle, Washington, Ravel Law judicial analytic services expansion, CenturyLink's new governmental cloud service, Microsoft "Plumbago", Pennsylvania Courts online payment system performance for 2015, and what the deal is with Windows 10 "telemetry" reporting.

Legislatures are starting to tell data services – clean your records

Legislative action in Colorado in 2011/2014 and Virginia this year are requiring public data service they must remove expunged records.  More below.

Stand Up for your Health

In the past year I have been using a reminder app to stand up and stretch once an hour.  It has helped me to feel better, especially in my neck and upper back area.  We discuss the application I use and some options below.

e-Courts 2016 Call for Proposals

e-Courts 2016 will be held December 12-14 in Las Vegas, NV, at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. If you know e-Courts, 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 who attend our education program.

Interested in sharing new ideas, new technology, new challenges, and new successes? We want to hear from you! The e-Courts format is one plenary room for 2 ½ days of education. There are a total of ten sessions up for grabs. Your session should be able to reach a huge, diverse audience and focus on a topic that affects the entire court community.

Judges Leverage Full-Text Searching

We are happy to share a guest post from Ms. Jenny Bunch of Mentis Technology Solutions on how judges are finding the benefits of full-text search in their aiSmartBench (E-Bench) system.

This and That in Court Tech – February, 2016

Time again for another installment of “This and That”.  We have news about Legal Services Corporation grants, Baton Rouge Louisiana Family Court self-help website, US Federal Court law library changes, an article from Harvard Business Review, Microsoft releasing to open source artificial intelligence framework software, widely varying software licensing costs for police in the UK, and the CTB listed as one of the 50 must read blogs by State Tech Magazine.

Status of State Court E-Filing – January, 2016

Last week I was asked about the status of E-filing in the state courts. Below is the compilation of information and project website links for the states and territories that I could find in January, 2016.

Wanted: Competitors for Inaugural CourtHack

NCSC is sponsoring the first-ever CourtHack—a 30-hour hackathon—designed to develop new and innovative solutions to improve our nation’s court systems. CourtHack takes place March 4-5, 2016 at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City, Utah.

This and That in Court Technology - January, 2016

By Sinead Friel (Kangaroo  Uploaded by snowmanradio)
[CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 )],
via Wikimedia Commons

In this month's news we have items from Australia, Indiana, Minnesota, the US Government Accountability Office, the FiveThirtyEight.com statistical analysis website, China, and the Consumer Electronics Show.

Microsoft Ends Older Internet Explorer Browser Support

Because the majority of our CTB readers use this browser, we recommend that you should plan to update or change in the very near future.

FileTime Lowers Barriers for E-filing in Texas

A good friend of ours, Tom Schoolcraft from FileTime wrote the following article for our CTB readers about their Electronic Filing Service Provider (EFSP) system in Texas.  As an aside, I have long supported the EFSP concept as they can provide capabilities that are not part of “normal” filing such as document conversion services.  See below for more…