Projects in Progress - February, 2011

The CTB receives PR announcements from companies regarding court technology projects.  Some recent ones are:

From Tyler Technologies:

January 27, 2011 – Tyler Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: TYL) announced today it has signed a contract with Pinellas County, Florida, for Tyler’s Odyssey® integrated justice suite. The agreement, valued at approximately $6.8 million, includes software licenses, professional services, maintenance and support.

February 3, 2011 – Tyler Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: TYL) has signed a contract valued at approximately $10 million to provide its Odyssey® integrated justice suite to Fulton County, Georgia. Fulton County, which has a population of more than one million and is home to Atlanta, has invested in a broad range of Tyler’s Odyssey applications including Case Manager, Prosecutor, Supervision, Law Enforcement, Jail Manager, Financial Manager and Public Access.

Orange County, California Expands E-Filing with OneLegal

Novato, CA, February 03, 2011 --(PR.com)-- Recently, the Superior Court of California, County of Orange posted an advisory on their website: “eFILING AVAILABLE FOR ALL CIVIL CASES.” The advisory speaks to the court’s desire to run more efficiently while faced with looming state budget cuts.

In a recent report by the California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), several Superior Courts in California were identified as overfunded, though long lines at many courts’ filing windows and reduced hours seem to tell an entirely different story. The LAO’s claim has already received a strong, public rebuttal from the San Francisco Superior Court.

While the LAO and courts continue their debate, Orange County Superior Court is taking action. In early 2010, the Court contracted with Novato based One Legal LLC to build and manage an electronic portal to the Court that allows legal professionals to electronically file and serve legal documents for Civil cases in a secure environment. The Court’s website states, “Because the Court expects there to be less money to operate the courts in the future, we must find less costly ways to process the existing volume of filings with fewer staff. The new eFiling system will reduce the cost to the Court by delivering both the document and information about the document directly into the Court’s data systems.”

A fifty percent increase in expected filings within the first six months is proof the new system is working. “This is another step in the Orange County Superior Court’s transition to an all electronic record that provides better, faster access to court records for everyone at a lower cost to the taxpayer,” said Orange County Court Executive Officer Alan Carlson in an eFiling case study done by One Legal.

CourtCall Saves Time and Money and CO2

In a press release date December 9, 2010, CourtCall noted:

"In  2010,  alone,  Judges  helped  lawyers  to  skip  over  1,000,000  trips  to  and  from  courts  in State, Federal and Bankruptcy Courts in both the largest and smallest Courts one can imagine and  they  are  to  be  applauded,”  said  Bob  Alvarado,  CourtCall’s  CEO. 'That  conservatively converts to over $150,000,000.00 in attorney time savings and the elimination of tons of CO2,' observed  Mark  S.  Wapnick,  CourtCall’s  President,  who  conceived  of  the  turn-key  telephonic appearance program."

Paper on Demand Series

The COSCA/NACM Joint Technology Committee has created a series of briefs on Paper on Demand concepts and projects.  The papers cover:

• Study of E-Citations  in Missouri, Iowa, and Utah
• Study of E-Filing in Colorado and Utah
• Study of E-Juror in Iowa and Utah

PDF/A, more than just archiving

Everyone knows what a PDF document is. But few understand the different versions of PDF and in particular, the national and international standards that have created that govern the format. A brief introduction to the subject is contained in the Future Trends 2010 article: Electronic Documents: Benefits and Potential Pitfalls.

The following article by Thomas Zellerman is reprinted with permission from the PDF/A Competence Center(1) January, 2011 Newsletter lists other aims for the PDF/A standards work that could potentially benefit the courts and legal process.

"The obvious reason anybody looks at adopting PDF/A is because they have a need to keep good archives for a certain time. Good may mean they want to be able to have exact visual reproduction of the documents in the archive, or it may go further and they might want to also guarantee semantic correctness of the documents. Likewise the range of meanings for a “certain time” may span from 7 to 10 years for tax papers, or to forever for libraries or national archives. But in most projects, people remain very focused on the archival side of the problem and the risk is that other opportunities are missed as a result.

That is a shame: taking a step back and looking at PDF/A as an ISO standard amongst many other similar PDF-based ISO standards can show additional opportunities and reasons to standardize on PDF/A.

So lets take a step back: PDF/A is an ISO standard based on another ISO standard, PDF (ISO 32000). This means that PDF/A documents are PDF files on which additional restrictions and demands are
placed. And following that same method, the ISO has developed and is still developing a number of
other standards that can be very interesting for companies looking at PDF/A. Some examples:

• PDF/X was the first PDF-based standard adopted and further developed by the ISO. As far back as 2001, ISO PDF/X was created to allow the use of PDF files in the print and publishing market.
• PDF/E is an ISO standard for use in engineering workflows, allowing for 3D drawings in PDF files.
• PDF/UA is becoming an ISO standard to create standardized accessible documents; allowing for example visually impaired people to use screen-reader applications with PDF files in a reliable way.

Does that mean that companies looking at PDF/A today should instead adopt all of these standards?  Not necessarily, but it would be a good thing to at least look at those other standards and understand how they could play a role.

It is also important when evaluating tools for use in PDF/A workflows. While some tools focus exclusively on PDF/A, there are certainly also tools on the market that add value towards some or all of these additional standards. And if such standards now or in the future hold value for a company, the selection of which tools are used should follow that realization.

And lastly, knowing those other standards is important when building the business case around adoption of PDF/A in a company. Additional demands such as the necessity to print or publish archived documents or convert them into accessible documents may very well change the scope of the project and lend additional credibility to standardizing on PDF/A as a way to prepare for things to come."

--
(1) As stated on their website: "The aim of the PDF/A Competence Center is to promote the exchange of information and experience in the area of long-term archiving in accordance with ISO 19005: PDF/A."

2011 National Forum on Criminal Justice & Public Safety July 31-August 2

Sponsored by the National Criminal Justice Association, the IJIS Institute, and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the 2011 National Forum on Criminal Justice and Public Safety showcases programs and technologies that help justice practitioners and decision makers in states, local communities and tribal nations address these pressing public safety issues today and in the future. Last year 91 percent of attendees reported that they learned useful strategies and ideas that they could take home and implement immediately. Eighty-seven percent of attendees said the Forum was important for their professional development.

For more information about the National Forum please visit www.ncja.org or www.national-forum.net.

Recently introduced e-filing bills

Much has been made, particularly in the recent spate of State of the Judiciary Speeches, about the boon and promise of e-filing in state courts. In just the last week legislators in five states introduced or advanced bills related to the subject.

Arizona SB 1185 Would change the state's existing laws that allow the Supreme Court and Superior Courts (pursuant to rules adopted by the Supreme Court) to have e-filing to require they do ("may" to "shall") Moreover, the bill would require the electronic access to court records and add bulk data to required material the courts shall provide. It is currently in the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee.

Oregon HB 2690 (link to legislature's website, no direct link to bill status page) takes a different tack. It allows the state;s Chief Justice to establish reasonable subscription fees, and other user and transaction fees, for remote access to case information and other Judicial Department forms, reports and services that are available in electronic form. Moreover, it modifies laws on filing of trial court transcripts on appeal to allow for the electronic filing of the transcript. It is in the House Judiciary Committee.

South Dakota HB 1038 requires the clerk of that state's Supreme Court collect certain fees for the electronic transmission of court records. That bill was approved by the House Committee on Judiciary on January 21 and by the full House on January 25.

Virginia SB 1369 would allow Circuit Court Clerks to charge a fee of $25 for civil or criminal proceedings filed electronically and an additional $10 fee for subsequent filings in such proceedings. The funds would be directed to the clerk's local fund to cover operational expenses of the electronic filing system. That bill is currently in the Senate Courts of Justice Committee.

Finally, Wyoming HB 190 offers what amounts to an e-filing discount of sorts. The bill provides for the electronic submittal of fees, fines, bonds and penalties to circuit courts and authorizes the Supreme Court to reduce the aforementioned fines, bonds and penalties if submitted electronically. That bill is currently in the House Judiciary Committee.

Cross-posted at the Gavel to Gavel blog

The Administrative Office of the US Courts issues RFP

The Administrative Office of the US Courts issued an RFP for a case management system.  The solicitation states that it "is for the acquisition, modification, and deployment of a new, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solution for the Office of Defender Services (ODS) of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AOUSC) to replace the existing Case Management System (CMS) for Federal Defender Organizations (FDOs). The CMS includes management of all case-related information and time keeping on representations handled by the FDOs."

Click here for the full solicitation.

Catching Up

In the time period between the old version of the CTB and this new one there was of course a lot of activity in the court technology world.  A few items of note:


The NCSC held two E-Courts Conferences in Tampa, Florida in September, 2010 and in Las Vegas in December, 2010.  More than 500 persons attended the two conferences.  Details about the conferences can be found at the conference website with the presentation slides.


In September, 2010 via a grant from the State Justice Institute, the NCSC released the results on the use of video conferencing in state courts across the country.  The report contains the results on various topics, including:  Sources of funding for video conferencing systems; extent of video for various types of proceedings; and statutes governing the use of video conferencing.  More than 700 statues and rules were found and compiled.

And in December, 2010, Derek Coursen and I published an article titled "A Framework for Logical Data Models in the Courts" at The Data Administration Newsletter website.  This technical paper identifies "certain patterns regarding representation of data on actors in the judicial process, cases, component matters (charges and civil claims), and events and tasks are generically applicable to any court situation."

This is not all that happened...more to come.

Iowa Chief Justice: Full, statewide e-filing & e-document management in 5-6 years

Last week Iowa Chief Justice Mark Cady presented the State of the Judiciary address for 2011. In it, the Chief Justice noted the importance of court technology in the state.

EDMS and Civil Justice Reform
We are testing a system for electronic filing and retrieval of documents. This system, which we call EDMS, expands access to justice beyond the courthouse walls. It enables litigants, lawyers, and others to file and access court records online, at anytime, night and day. It saves Iowans the cost and inconvenience of traveling to the courthouse to conduct their business. It gives judges access to records as soon as they are filed. If everything goes as planned and we have sufficient resources to move ahead, we should have EDMS fully implemented in five or six years.

Promoting Understanding about the Work of Courts
Lastly, it is my hope that we can move forward with a shared commitment for a greater understanding of our courts and their important role in maintaining our democracy. This understanding can best be achieved by making our courts even more transparent.

Up until a year ago, the [Iowa Courts] website also provided a video cast of supreme court proceedings, but this procedure was a victim of the budget cuts.

For more from the State of the Judiciary Address, click here.

MI: Supreme Court order permits e-filing pilot testing

The Michigan Supreme Court has granted permission for a pilot e-filing project in the state. Administrative Order 2010-6 permits Macomb County to try the pilot "to study the effectiveness
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)

CTC 2011 Call for Ideas and Participation

The National Center for State Courts - Court Technology Conference 2011 has issued a call for ideas and presentations.  CTC 2011 will be held in Long Beach, California from  October 4 – 6, 2011

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.

All submissions for the conference must be made through the conference submission survey at: http://www.ncsc.org/ctc2011survey 

The deadline for submissions is: February 15, 2011

Florida moving into e-filing "slowly" starting January 1

Legislatively mandated e-filing began in 9 Florida counties on January 1. According to the Florida Bar News not all counties were ready on New Year's Day, and for at least the first 90 days cases must be filed by paper as well as electronically. Moreover, filing through the portal www.myflcourtaccess.com is limited to circuit civil, county civil, probate, family, and juvenile dependency cases only for the time being.

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

FL: Mandatory e-filing in criminal cases

Earlier in 2010, Gavel to Gavel looked at efforts by state legislatures to mandate more electronic filing of court documents. Much of the focus was on civil cases, however Florida’s Senate is considering a plan to press for criminal case e-filing. SB 170 of 2011 would require 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.
Cross-posted at Gavel to Gavel blog

Court Tech Bulletin's New Home

We have joined "the cloud" at the CTB. This will be the new home of the Court Technology Bulletin. We look forward to interacting with everyone in the future.

Also don't forget about the E-Courts Conference 2010 West coming up December 13-15, 2010 in Las Vegas.

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.

Appellate Court E-Filing - 2010

During the recent National Association of Appellate Court Clerks conference, a presentation on lessons learned from E-filing projects was made.  Supreme Courts in Wyoming, Texas and North Carolina shared their experiences.

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

Periodically the NCSC has developed case study papers for court technology.  The most recent one is A Case Study of Paper on Demand POD that focuses on E-filing in Colorado and Utah.  You can download a PDF copy here.

NCSC releases 22nd edition of Future Trends in State Courts

Williamsburg, Virginia, USA - June 30, 2010 - The evaluation and adjustment of court operations to improve processes and save money while increasing efficiency and maintaining service levels to the public - a process known as court re-engineering - is the central theme of Future Trends in State Courts 2010, the latest edition of the National Center for State Courts NCSC annual report on Trends in State Courts series. This is the 22nd edition of the series, which is dedicated to making courts aware of key trends that affect not only court operations, but also the role of courts in society.

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/

Indiana Looks for New Appellate CMS

On July 9, 2010 the following was posted:

 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

Comments on Courtroom Technology

On June 16, 2010 authors George C. Zumbano and Benjamin R. Messing posted an article - Technology Is a Double-Edged Sword in the Courtroom on Law.com. The article contains sections on cost-benefit analysis, effectively utilizing technology, and avoiding presentation problems.

Mastering the Unpredictable

A book released earlier this year titled: Mastering the Unpredictable, How Adaptive Case Management Will Revolutionize the Way that Knowledge Workers Get Things Done includes a chapter by NCSC Senior Management Consultant, John Matthias.  Johns chapter, Technology for Case Management, builds on the overall theme stated by the author that - some kinds of work are unpredictable.  We in the courts are reminded every day that this is true.

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

Why the Future Is Not Paper - Second in a Series

Many courts are continuing to view and insist that E-filed electronic documents should continue to be functionally the same as their paper and much dumber cousins.  Please consider that information entombed in a paper document is now locked as to the accuracy of the moment it is printed.  It is essentially a snapshot.  This of course results in all sorts of problems as to the information accuracy when that paper document is later read and used.  And unfortunately, judges and court staff are relying on the accuracy of that locked paper information to make decisions that affect people’s lives.

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?

New Website for US Federal Courts

The US Federal Courts collected comments and ideas from a "wide range of users" resulting in a new redesigned website with multimedia, automatic updates, and many other features.  See for yourself at: http://www.uscourts.gov/Home.aspx

Survey Targets Courts Using Social Media

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Blogs.  The list is seemingly endless.  The NCSC is assisting the Conference of Court Public Information Officers, with collecting questionnaire responses for the first major survey on new media and the courts.  To learn more, and to access the survey go to: http://icmelearning.com/CCPIO/index.html

Why the Future Is Not Paper - First in a Series

This is the first in a series of notes on how the future court document and file environment is not going to look like the current paper-based systems.  I wrote a paper many years ago that used the analogy of automobiles.  The first autos looked like horse carriages.  Does your car look like a carriage now?

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

Thanks to our colleague, Larry Murphy, we learned of a Des Moines Register newspaper article pubished on June 7, 2010 titled: More online court filings seen for Iowa.  The article notes that the EDMS became operational in Plymouth County, Iowa in January and they hope to pilot the system in Story County, Iowa in September.  The article further stated:

"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."

Recrafting Government as an Open Platform

The ITJobBlog in the United Kingdom has posted an article on a recently issued report from the Centre for Technology Policy Research.  The post titled - Recrafting government as an open platform notes that:

"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

The NCSC Knowledge and Information Services has collected a plethora of resources on the Social Media phenomena and how courts are adapting to and using Twitter, Facebook and similar services.  The web page can be found at:
http://www.ncsc.org/topics/media-relations/social-media-and-the-courts/resource-guide.aspx

Videoconference Appellate Argument Website

We recently ran across a nice web page by the public affairs TV channel, C-SPAN that was created for the Arar v. Ashcroft oral arguments before the US Federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals.  There are a couple of interesting technical presentation ideas presented on the web page.

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

Thanks to our good friend Jim Drubert in Montgomery County, Ohio we learned of an attorney using YouTube to store the video portion of their electronic pleading.  According to the Maryland Daily Record in an article published on May 17, 2010 the Louisiana Lawyer:

"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.

Alaska Issues RFP

On May 12, 2010 the following announcement was made.

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.

US Federal Courts Are Busy!

The April 2010 edition of The Third Branch US Federal Courts newsletter contains four very interesting court IT related articles.  They are:

• E-Pro Se Bolsters Access to Court
• Committee Suggest Guidelines for Juror Use of Electronic Communication Technologies
• Local IT Initiatives Receive Grants
• New Look, New URL for Supreme Court Website

Canadian Forum on Court Technology Scheduled

Our friends at the Canadian Centre for Court Technology has announced they will be hosting their first Canadian Forum on Court Technology in Ottawa from September 22-23, 2010.  They are listing twenty-two session in three tracks and the NCSC is happy to be a supporter of the event.  For more information see the conference website at: http://www.ccct-cctj.ca/forum/en/

Online Traffic Payments System in Cook County

Public Safety IT magazine published an article in their March/April, 2010 issue on "Paying traffic tickets online in Cook County, IL".  Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Hon. Dorothy Brown states that:

"It enables individuals to rapidly and conveniently respond to their traffic violations and, if they so choose, pay associated fines and other charges safely and securely on their home computers."

California Issues Report on Statewide CCMS Project

The Government Technology magazine website posted an article on April 26, 2010 titled: California Court Case Management System Needs a Cost Cap, Review Finds.

The link to the complete CIO report in PDF is: http://www.cio.ca.gov/pdf/CCMS_Final_Report.pdf

All-In-One PCs Cut Power Consumption

The fact that many court clerks offices and chambers are cramped for space does not come as a surprise to those who suffer in those conditions every day.  The addition of a full sized desktop computer, especially when full sized CRT displays were used did not help the situation. But during the past year a new form factor for standard PCs has been introduced by the manufacturers, the All-In-One computer.  Of course this is not new for Apple iMac users, but for the rest of us, this is a good development.

What is meant by an All-In-One computer?  Simply it means that the parts of the computer; the hard disk, DVD/CD drive, processor, and memory are placed behind the display screen resulting in one compact package.  In addition, many All-In-One computers have touch-screen capability that could potentially help to speed data entry with the proper programming.

But why else am I writing about this?  It is because the All-In-One computer format is also a green machine in that it uses much less electrical power than the standard desktop computer.  The All-In-Ones I looked at used a 65 watt or lower power supply.  In contrast, a survey of currently available desktop PCs showed they used from a low of 220, to a high of 450 watts of power each.  Multiply this by 25, 50, or 100 computers this turns into a significant amount of power and heat.

If you are interested in more detailed information; I found the following review article for this style of machine from last fall on the Computer Shopper website.  It provides a quick overview of the All-In-One machines that were available at the time.

http://www.computershopper.com/back-to-school/2009/reviewed-nine-all-in-one-desktop-pcs-for-students

US Federal Courts Update Public Access Policies

The March, 2010 edition of The Third Branch Federal Court newsletter contains an interesting article: Judicial Conference Approves Steps to Improve Public Access.  The article describes several actions to decrease the cost of using their PACER public access system and to make digital audio recordings available. The article also noted that in 2009:

"PACER received more than 360 million requests for electronic access to information from the over 33 million federal cases that have documents online."

More PDF Security Problems

On top of previous warnings, Adobe and FoxIt have announced actions that users should implement to prevent malicious programs from being automatically launched when opening an infected PDF file.  An excellent article on the subject was posted on the ZDNet blog Zero Day by Ryan Naraine and Dancho Danchev at:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=6028&tag=nl.e550



Program security updates are expected to be released during the week of April 12, 2010.

e-Courts Conference Agendas Posted

Earlier this week the conference agendas for both the e-Courts East Tampa, Florida - Sept 13-15 and e-Courts West Las Vegas, Nevada - December 13-15 were posted on the conference website.  And additional information regarding the vendor exposition has also been listed.  The conferences are really coming together with many new ideas being shared for the first time.

This and that on April Fools Day

We've been collecting a few items of interest over the past few weeks.  The first is the BlackBox Wireless Video Presentation System.  This small box connects to a prjector or flat panel via their VGA interface and allows one to connect your laptop via Wi-Fi to display your presentations and video.  Further, it lets up to 254 users share and swap the connection and allows for a 4-to-1 screen-split projection.

Second, we participated in one of the series of Law.gov project seminars at Cornell University.  The first of many project goals are to develop "detailed technical specifications for markup, authentication, bulk access, and other aspects of a distributed registry" for legal materials.  The project's website is: http://resource.org/law.gov/  A list of upcoming events can be viewed at:
http://legalinformatics.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/law-gov-upcoming-events-updated/


Third, we had the honor to visit to the Fayette County, Pennsylvania courthouse.  Courtroom Number 1 literally brings the phrase "Temple of Justice" to mind.  Interestingly in the courthouse law library was a display for local crafts-people who had made book bags from... recycled law books.  To see what we mean visit their website at: http://www.bookbags.us.com/

Some Courts Are Using E-Mail for E-Filing

During some recent research we ran across several courts that are allowing E-mail as a method for electronic filing of court documents.  The North Dakota Supreme Court order providing guidance for e-filing using e-mail can be viewed at:

http://www.ndcourts.com/court/rules/Administrative/AO14.htm

Similarly the UK Courts Service guidance for using e-mail to submit documents can be seen at:
http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/infoabout/email_guidance/email_guidance_general.htm

And last, in an earlier CTB article we discovered that Israel is also using e-mail as part of their system.

Justice Reference Architecture Implementation Competition Announced

The National Center for State Courts and SEARCH Group — on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance BJA — are pleased to announce that they are seeking proposals to design and implement information sharing solutions that utilize the Justice Reference Architecture JRA. The JRA applies principles of Service Oriented Architecture SOA across the justice and public safety communities to improve information sharing capabilities.

The goal of this project is for award recipients hereinafter called project participants to employ JRA concepts in the definition of information exchange requirements and to demonstrate full-scale architecture design and implementation of JRA-conformant information exchanges within their environments or with external partners. Awards will be made to successful candidates as follows:

Maximum Award Amount: $100,000

Maximum Number of Awards: 2

No match is required; however, projects funded under this solicitation are expected to demonstrate long-term financial viability and may incur additional local costs.
It is the intent of this project to make one award to a State or Major Urban Area Fusion Center that is capable of implementing the JRA as described below. Priority consideration will be given to Fusion Center proposals that leverage existing Global products, standards, and initiatives.

The full announcement can be viewed at the SEARCH Group's website at:

http://www.search.org/programs/info/jra/

Federal Courts Report on Sealed Cases and Probation E-Filing

The February, 2010 edition of the US Federal Courts Newsletter, The Third Branch has two articles of interest.  The first article, FJC Report Focuses on Sealed Cases in Federal Courts reports that only .5 percent of cases were completely sealed.  This is of interested for electronic document automation because of the amount and type of technology that may need to be used.

The second article, Electronic Filing by Probation and Pretrial Services Speeds Up Court Process, Reduces Paper identifies many advantages to the use of E-Filing.  Specific benefits cited were the elimination of lost paperwork, easy certification of the record, and as part of their continuity of operations planning since the records would be available from anywhere they could set up a computer system with comunications.

Online Credit Card Security Standards

An important part of modern court operations is the ability to accept credit/debit card payment and if desired say in an E-filing system; be able to store the credit card number with the user account to make the system easier to use.  The Security Standards Council that was formed by the credit card industry has produced detailed standards “to enhance payment account data security”.  In particular courts should examine the PCI Data Security Standard PCI DSS as a core functional specification for their credit card systems.  As stated on the standards web page  the “core of the PCI is a group of principles and accompanying requirements” are:

Build and Maintain a Secure Network
Requirement 1: Install and maintain a firewall configuration to protect cardholder data
Requirement 2: Do not use vendor-supplied defaults for system passwords and other security parameters

Protect Cardholder Data
Requirement 3: Protect stored cardholder data
Requirement 4: Encrypt transmission of cardholder data across open, public networks

Maintain a Vulnerability Management Program
Requirement 5: Use and regularly update anti-virus software
Requirement 6: Develop and maintain secure systems and applications

Implement Strong Access Control Measures
Requirement 7: Restrict access to cardholder data by business need-to-know
Requirement 8: Assign a unique ID to each person with computer access
Requirement 9: Restrict physical access to cardholder data

Regularly Monitor and Test Networks
Requirement 10: Track and monitor all access to network resources and cardholder data
Requirement 11: Regularly test security systems and processes

Maintain an Information Security Policy
Requirement 12: Maintain a policy that addresses information security

Court Costs and Electronic Discovery

The electronic transition continues. On February 1, 2010 Austin, Texas attorney Craig Ball published an interested article titled - Are We Just Makin' Copies? in Law Technology News.  In the article he argues that the Federal Court Rules of Civil Procedure must be updated to recognize new realities and to create a consistent approach to court cost recovery.

Florida State Courts Administrator Issues RFP for Governance Study

The Florida Office of State Courts Administrator, Strategic Planning Unity has recently issued a Request for Proposals for a Judicial Branch Governance Study.  The RFP is in concert with Florida Supreme Court Administrative Order AOSC09-43 issued in October, 2009 that:

Directs the Judicial Branch Governance Study Group to undertake an in-depth study of the current governance system of the judicial branch of Florida.  The study group is directed to submit a final report and recommendations to the court no later than December 31, 2010.

The order further directs that the report shall contain:

1  An examination of the structure and functions of the present governance system of the Florida judicial branch and an assessment of its efficacy and efficiency;
2  Recommendations of actions or activities that the study group concludes would advance improvement in the governance of the judicial branch; and,
3  Recommendations of any changes to the present governance system that the study group concludes would
improve the effective and efficient management of the Florida judicial branch.

A copy of the RFP in PDF form can be downloaded from:
http://www.flcourts.org/gen_public/purchasing/bin/RFP-10-001-BF.pdf

US Federal Courts Provide Guidance on Juror Smart Phone Use

On January 24th, the US Federal Courts Judicial Comittee on Court Administration and Case Management for the US District Courts issued instructions to be provided to jurors regarding the use of cell phones and computers during their service. 
A Network World article posted on February 2, 2010 titled - Courts move to ban juror use of Blackberry, iPhone, Twitter and Facebook provides a summary of this action. 
The court instructions can be downloaded in PDF at: http://www.uscourts.gov/newsroom/2010/DIR10-018.pdf

COSCA Whitepaper on Digital Recording

The Conference of State Court Administrators adopted the white paper titled - Digital Recording: Changing Times for Making the Record at their December, 2009 meeting.  The paper notes challenges to the current method listing the Decline in Court Reporter Resources and Efficient, Timely Transcript Production and Access to the Record.  The also note opportunities of Digital Recording including the Fundamentals of the technology, access, administrative control, integration of digital recordings with CMS and potential for cost savings.

E-Courts 2010 Date Correction

The E-Courts Conference West to be held in Las Vegas at the Red Rock Resort will be held from December 13-15, 2010.  The previously announced dates, December 6-8 were incorrect.  Many apologies for the mistake.  E-Courts Conference East will be held in Tampa, Florida from September 13-15, 2010 at the Marriott Waterside.

New Release of CAMeditor Available

From a press release issued on December 16, 2009:


A new release of CAMeditor v1.7 is now available with NIEM 2.1 and LEXS 3.1.4 support. CAMeditor is an XML Editor/Validation/Schema Designer. Implements OASIS CAM standard & NIEM IEPDs. Outline & expand from XML Component Dictionary. Build/Load XSD schema, make XML samples, HTML docs, detect NDR bugs; generate dictionary CCTS. Eclipse Java & XSLTSaxon.



For the CAMeditor significant changes include improvements to the Eclipse user interface and template structure display along with enhancing the top down designer and generation and handling of large dictionary structures. Also included is a new LEXS 3.1.4 dictionary with sample expander blueprint templates for LEXS messages and updates of the NIEM dictionary files to the NIEM 2.1 release. Various NIEM related enhancements have been made in support of better IEPD generation http://www.niem.gov . CAMeditor is built using Eclipse, Java, and Saxon xslt.

The CAMV validation engine is now a thread-safe implementation supporting deployment in middleware containers such as jBOSS or IBM Websphere MQ™. Validation of exchange structures now allows handling of very large XML instances with checking of a discreet subset of business content requirements. Also integration support for Java call methods SDOM has been implemented CAMV is developed in Java using Saxon, Xerces and XPath v2.0 support.

The project vision is to provide the leading open source toolset for implementing standards based information exchanges with XML, including the NIEM IEPD approach. Simplifying and speeding the development process and enhancing the quality of your resulting schema for superior XML exchanges. To date we have had over 15,500 downloads from Sourceforge.net http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/camprocessor .