New Technology Trends Articles Posted

John Matthias and Jim McMillan have posted two new trends articles on the NCSC's website. John's article is titled E-Filing Expansion in State, Local, and Federal Courts 2007. Jim's article is titled Using Technology to Improve Customer Service. Both can be downloaded by clicking on the title links. Both articles are part of the NCSC's Future Trends in State Courts series that are compiled each year in the the Trends Report.

Phoenix Municipal Court Offers WiFi Service

Tim Lawler, the IST Division Administrator of the Phoenix, Arizona Municipal Court wrote recently that they have installed "no charge" filtered wireless Internet service in their court.

Federal Courts Speed Prisoner Transfers

The February, 2007 US Federal Courts newsletter, The Third Branch contains an article on their web based "eDesignate" system "that allows a probation office and the U.S. Marshals Service to electronically transmit documents to the Bureau of Prisons after a defendant is sentenced to custody". The article goes on to note that "more than 14,000 designations have been made using the eDesignate system".

Federal Appellate Courts Go Live with CM/ECF

The March, 2007 issue of The Third Branch federal court newsletter contains an article on the implementation of their new case management system in 2007. The article states that the new system will allow for electronic document filing in the near future.

Louisiana Courts Issue RFP

The Louisiana Courts have issued the following notice:

The purpose of this RFP is to solicit proposals for procurement of a Microsoft Sequel Server integrated adult court case management system entitled “The Louisiana Court Connection” to be administered by the Louisiana Supreme Court Judicial Administrator’s Office CMIS Division. The intent of the Louisiana Court Connection is to provide Louisiana city courts with an effective means of managing civil, traffic, criminal, probation (special sentencing), appeals, and court services data and provide financial tracking of court furnished fines and fees, case scheduling, document indexing and preservation, standard form and report generation, and ad-hoc query functional capabilities. Software development for the Louisiana Court Connection will be acquired through competitive contract negotiations on a fixed fee basis.

The complete RFP is posted on the Court’s website (www.lasc.org). Paper copies of the RFP can be obtained by contacting:

Carmelitte Venturella
Louisiana Supreme Court
Office of the Judicial Administrator
CMIS Division
400 Royal Street, Suite 1190
New Orleans, Louisiana 70130-8101
(504) 310-2571
FAX (504) 310-2570
Email: mailto:cventurella@lajao.org

The value of project management...

TechRepublic recently published an article titled Project management 101--the case for project management by Tom Mochal. There are many books and articles on the subject of making a case for project management, but this is a brief article that gets right to the point. Every project (especially IT projects) will have risks to manage and unexpected problems to deal with. You can deal with these issues in a haphazard or reactive mode or you can deal with them in a proactive and controlled manner. I’m betting the latter is what most of us would want.

Innovations in Justice: Information Sharing Strategies and Best Practices Conference

SEARCH Group has announced the Innovations in Justice: Information Sharing Strategies and Best Practices Conferences at the Hyatt Regency-Minneapolis, in Minnesota, March 27-29, 2007 and later; June 4-6, 2007 at the Hyatt Regency-Jacksonville Riverfront, Jacksonville, FL. Domingo S. Herraiz, Director, Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice is keynote speaker on Day 1 of the conference in Minneapolis.

Free Public Wi-Fi Scam Article

During my travels in recent weeks I have seen the "Free Public Wi-Fi" scam show up at four different airports when looking for a wireless Internet connection. I have seen it in Chicago, Washington Dulles, and both Tampa and Richmond where there are actually free connections available. If you are interested, here is an excellent ComputerWorld article about the problem.

Global Justice Reference Architecture Draft Available

The GISWG Executive Architecture Committee (EAC) announced that the Global Justice Reference Architecture (JRA) Specification Working Draft Version 1.4 is now available on U.S. OJP's Technology and Global Web Site. Each JRA Draft Specification is open for a two week review timeframe, and all comments will be considered for the next pending release. There is a quick link to the left of the U.S. DOJ's Global web site, under "Key Topics," and an established link at http://it.ojp.gov/globaljra.

Justice Reference Architecture Presentation Available

Recently our own Scott Fairholm made a presentation on the Justice Reference Architecture that was captured on video and is available online courtesy of the IJIS Institute. The publications page that contains this and other presentations can be accessed directly by clicking here.

Global Justice Reference Architecture Draft Available

The GISWG Executive Architecture Committee (EAC) announced that the Global Justice Reference Architecture (JRA) Specification Working Draft Version 1.4 is now available on U.S. OJP's Technology and Global Web Site. Each JRA Draft Specification is open for a two week review timeframe, and all comments will be considered for the next pending release. There is a quick link to the left of the U.S. DOJ's Global web site, under "Key Topics," and an established link at http://it.ojp.gov/globaljra.

US Bankruptcy Courts Protect Privacy

A December, 2006 article in the US Federal Courts newsletter "The Third Branch" described the Bankruptcy Courts response to the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA). The article states that "Although the federal courts already have in place a policy on privacy and public access to electronic case files (http://www.privacy.uscourts.gov/b4amend.htm), Section 315 of the Act specifically required that the Director of the Administrative Office (AO) establish procedures for safeguarding the confidentiality of the required tax information."

The article further states that "(u)nder the guidance issued by the AO, no tax information filed with the bankruptcy court or otherwise provided by the debtor will be available to the public on the Internet, on the Judiciary’s electronic public access service that allows users to obtain case and docket information from records, or through the courts’ Case Management/Electronic Case Files system. For non-court users of any of these systems or networks, a docket report will indicate only that tax information has been filed."

MassCourts Lite Announced

On February 6, 2007 a Massachusetts Court System press release stated that "Chief Justice for Administration and Management Robert A. Mulligan today announced that the Trial Court has completed its rollout of MassCOURTS Lite to 63 divisions of the District and Boston Municipal Court Departments. MassCOURTS is the Trial Court’s web-based, electronic case management system."

Ohio Supreme Court Goes Digital

In a press release the Ohio Supreme Court announced their digital document program began operation in December, 2006. They wrote: "Digital images of case documents filed with the Supreme Court of Ohio are now available on the Court's Web site, through the Clerk of Court's online case docket search."

"The feature allows quick and easy access to anyone interested in case filings before the Supreme Court of Ohio. For more than 200 years there was one way to read a merit brief or other document in a case file at the Supreme Court – Physically visit the Clerk's Office and look in the file."

The website can be viewed at: http://www.supremecourtofohio.gov/Clerk_of_Court/

E-Courts 2006 Notes - Day One

Roger Winters has completed the first day of his extensive notes on the E-Courts 2006 Conference held this past December in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Are you prepared for Daylight Savings Time changes?

Recent communications from our friend Tom Hoffmann (Systems Manager at the Orange County, Florida Clerk of Courts) reminded us of the possible impact of Daylight Savings Time changes on IT systems. In August of 2005, President Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This Act extends Daylight Savings Time by four weeks beginning in 2007, with the intended benefit being reduced energy consumption. DST will now begin on the second Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday in November.

This change could affect computers and applications that incorporate date and time processing functions or time stamps. Most applications and databases rely on the operating system clock for date and time functions. There is likely a patch for most operating systems that you’ve hopefully already applied. There is apparently also a problem with Java applications running under an older runtime environment (JRE). Most of our Court IT friends have probably already assessed the impact on their systems. For those who haven’t, now would be a good time. Many vendors have made available updates and/or recommended approaches to dealing with the change. Several links are provided below for articles on the subject and to pages from a few of the larger systems providers, but you should contact your system and application vendors for additional information.

Articles:

• Computerworld
• edgeblog
• USA Today
• Wikipedia

Courts Report on Technology Projects

Thanks to our friends in our Customer Service Desk here at the NCSC we received notes about two court automation projects. First, the Delaware Judiciary reported that they have successfully completed the first phase of the implementation of their new case management system.

And second, the Sioux City Journal reports on an interview of the Iowa's Chief Justice Marsha Ternus, regarding their efforts to go paperless. The Iowa Judicial Branch also posted proposed Rules for Electronic Filing in January, 2007.

National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) Executive Briefing

We received the following announcement regarding an upcoming meeting:

The NIEM Program Management Office is hosting a NIEM Executive Session on January 23, 2007, to brief CIO's, Chief Architects, Program Managers and their representatives from the Federal Government as well as other interested parties.

Topics to be covered will include the definition of NIEM, where NIEM is today, its business value, a high level overview of its architecture and enterprise architecture context, and how to become involved or get started.

NIEM, the National Information Exchange Model, is a partnership between the Department of Homeland Security and the US Department of Justice. NIEM is focused on (i) developing reusable data components, (ii) proving support for packaging these components into business context to make reusable exchange specifications, (iii) doing so across domains and communities of interest, and (iv) providing standards, governance, methods, tools, training and technical assistance to drive adoption, use, and value creation.

The vision for NIEM is to be the standard, by choice, for cross-government information exchange.

TIME & DATE: January 23, 2007, 9AM - Noon 

PLACE: American Association for Advancement of Science, 1200 New York Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20005. AAAS is located on 12th Street, NW, with entrances at H Street and New York Ave. The nearest metro stop is Metro Center. To download a detailed map of the area, please follow this link: http://www.aaas.org/dcwest.pdf

REGISTRATION: Please send response to tpate@iir.com if you plan to attend. There is no cost to attend but space is limited.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.NIEM.gov/

Privacy and Public Access to Court Records Conference to be Held

According to their release "(o)n Thursday and Friday, March 22nd and 23rd, 2007, with the assistance of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, the Center for Legal and Court Technology (formerly the Courtroom 21 Project) will host the Fifth Conference on Privacy and Public Access to Court Records in Williamsburg, Virginia."

The release invites interested parties to attend "the Conference, which will bring together policy makers from the state and federal courts, judges, law professors, access and privacy advocates, and others involved in efforts to develop policies on public access to court records."

In Memory of John Doktor

We are pleased to announce that the attendees at the recent E-Courts Conference donated $743 to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in memory of John Doktor. John was director of the Integrated Justice System project in Maricopa County, Phoenix, Arizona and a long time contributor in advancing court technology. He will be missed.

US Federal Courts Report on Technology

The November, 2006 issue of The Third Branch newsletter published by the US Federal Courts is chock full of articles regarding technology use in their system. Articles include:

• Federal Courts Look to Contain Costs in Lean Times discusses the use and impact of the CM/ECF system
• Payment of Court Fees Via the Internet Grows in Popularity reports on the growing use of credit card payment by attorneys.
• Electronically Stored Information Target of New Rules talks about new amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedures.
• Robust IT Program Benefits Courts and Public: An Interview with Judge Thomas Vanaskie who is chair of the Judicial Conference Committee on Information Technology and a speaker at the E-Courts 2006 conference.

E-Courts Presentations Now Online

Over 600 persons attended the most successful E-Courts Conference to date in Las Vegas last week. The presentations that we have received to date are posted at the E-Courts 2006 Presentations web page.

West Virginia Courts Start CMS Project

An article in the West Virginia Record newspaper highlights the new court case management system project for the West Virginia Courts. The Unified Judicial Application will be rolled out over a four year period and will use the state's existing T-1 network as its backbone.

Ohio Supreme Court Announces Imaging and RSS technology

The Supreme Court of Ohio announced on November 30, 2006 that as of December 1st, all case documents filed on and after that date will be available online soon after filing. In addition, the Court also announced a new Case Activity Notification Service using RSS technology. The service will make it easier for interested parties to track developments in cases pending before the Supreme Court.

US Federal Court E-Filing Rules

Attorney Howard J. Bashman, in his regular column for Law.com, discusses new rules for unpublished citations and appellate court E-filing in his article "What Do the Federal Appellate Procedure Rule Changes Mean for You?" (12/2010 update: please note that access to this article requires a subscription to Law.com)