New “Chip” Credit Cards Will Change Usage Liability for Courts

The COSCA/NACM Joint Technology Committee has issued a new resource bulletin, “EMV and Credit Card Liability: What Courts Need to Know”.  As discussed last year in a CTB article, this mandatory change is coming in October, 2015.

Fantastical – A Natural Language Calendar App

At the beginning of 2015 we (not so boldly) predicted that this was the year that we would see applications that use a more natural interface such as speech and pen input.  Here is one cool new program that could guide our CCMS development plans.

CTC 2015 Registration Begins with a One Day Sale..Monday April 13th

The Court Technology Conference (CTC) 2015 will take place September 22–24 in Minneapolis, and its education program and exhibit hall will attract judges, court administrators, court technologists, court managers, and other justice-system professionals from across the country and across the world.  CTC 2015 online registration opens Monday, April 13 and for that one day only registration is steeply discounted to $600!  

The CTC 2015 education program will focus on six tracks: e-Bench and Judicial Tools; Electronic Court Records Management; the Management of Court IT; the Judiciary in a Virtual, Mobile and Social World; Access to Justice; and the Courthouse of the Future. Go to ctc2015.org on April 13 to get our best deal on CTC registration.  No special code is required, but this is a one-day sale, so mark your calendar!

The link again is: http://www.ctc2015.org/

A CCMS Smart Document Receipt Concept

Recently I have been working on the concept of a “smart receipt” that would be generated by a CCMS for either E-filing or “in-person” filing.  I share my ideas in the article below…

E-Filing Project Updates Noted

We learned about several electronic court filing projects this week thanks to Mark Schwartz at OneLegal, Bonnie Carver at File & Serve Express and Google News.  The projects involve courts in California, Georgia, New Jersey, Ohio, and Texas.

Bankruptcy Courts Report Savings and other Benefits from Electronic Noticing

DeBN Logo Developed by the
Bankruptcy Court for the
Central District of California

Via press release on February 19, 2015, we learned about the US Bankruptcy court electronic noticing system.  They write:

"While business is increasingly conducted using smart phones, tablets and laptops, debtors who file for bankruptcy protection continue to receive paper copies of court notices and orders by regular mail — a practice that consumes both time and money. Thanks to a new program available through the Bankruptcy Noticing Center (BNC), debtors in participating courts now have the option of receiving court-generated notices and orders electronically.

New JTC paper makes case for judicial tools

Judicial Dashboard screenshot, courtesy Wisconsin Court System

The Joint Technology Committee (JTC) has released a new resource bulletin, “Making the Case for Judicial Tools.”

Standards for Jury Management System Requirements

The Joint Technology Committee has developed a national standard for jury management.functional requirements that serve as a great starting point for courts developing or acquiring a new Jury Management System.

This and That in Court Tech – A Frozen February, 2015 Edition

Our regular compilation of news and notes regarding the world or court technology follows.  In this edition we note the new CTC 2015 topic survey, Pennsylvania online payments, password technology replacement, online dispute resolution recommendations in the UK, more on court related scamming activity, more AmCad fallout, and the ServeCon conference.

Electronic Briefs Explained

Probate Court Judge Don Wilkes,
Ms. Lisa Joyner and Ms. Kristie Pope
Candler Co., Georgia

Attorney Ms. Elizabeth “Ellie” Neiberger wrote a terrific article for the Florida Law Journal (February, 2015 Volume 89, No. 2, page 46) titled “Judge-Friendly Briefs in the Electronic Age”.  She starts the article with the advice “(t)he golden rule for any type of writing is ‘write for the reader’.  Appellate judges read a lot, and how they read is changing.”

2014 CITOC Innovation Award – North Carolina Electronic Protective Order System

The following article provides some of the project details for the CITOC award winner submitted by the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts.  In their submission they wrote that:

“On June 24, 2013, Alamance County became the first county in North Carolina to implement the Electronic Protective Order System (EPOS) which greatly increases the safety of domestic violence victims and allows for streamlined, efficient processing of domestic violence orders initiated from a secure, non-public remote location.

CITOC Announces Innovation Awards

The national Court Information Technology Officers Consortium (CITOC) and the Conference of State Court Administrators honored the following courts with awards in December, 2014 during their annual conference.

•  Innovation in Business Process Award 2014: Superior Court of California, Orange County

•  Innovation in Technology Award 2014: North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts

The Hagan Manifesto on PDF's

Used with permission from Ms. Hagan

Our favorite Law Design blogger, Ms. Margaret Hagan, has posted her “short manifesto” on “Law’s PDF Problem”.  I agree with her observations and offer some additional commentary.

Ms. Hagan is doing some excellent work in examining how legal systems have been designed (or not designed) over the past few years.  Her recent post looks at the problem of legal (including court) information being “buried in PDF’s”.  She notes:

The Courtroom Tablet - Microsoft Surface Hub

 

Image from Microsoft

One of the most interesting thing that was announced by Microsoft earlier this week was the Surface Hub 84-inch 4K interactive display (there will be a 55” size also).  Talk about a tablet!  This is one device that has the potential for everyone in the courtroom to see and use. 

This article from Engadget.com describes the systems features.  It includes a the pressure sensitive stylus that allows the user to change colors and line thickness, built-in cameras with Skype for Business video and desktop conferencing, and the ability to wirelessly connect with any “Miracast-enabled device” so that when Windows10 is released, one will be able to download images from the screen to save for archive/evidence.

It was reported that it will be available later in 2015.

This and That in Court Technology - January 2015

A new CTB template and other court technology news is noted in this month's post.

New Court Technology Bulletin Template

You might notice that the CTB looks different.  In celebration of its fifth year as a Google Blogger blog we decided the go with a new cleaner look.  There is a new blog masthead thanks to one of our talented NCSC graphics designers, Elizabeth Maddox.   We have also gathered all of our links and resources together on one page so that there is a “one-stop” place to find things that are useful to the court technologist.  We hope you like it.

2015 – The Year We Can Talk about Using Automation the Way Judges (and People) Actually Work

Lenovo Yoga AnyPen

Apologies for the long title, but it is becoming clear that automation has finally caught up to the way judges actually work, by speaking and writing with a pen.

Internet Access to Court Records Upsets Canadians

According to an article in The Globe and Mail newspaper, “(o)ver the past year, close to 100 people have complained to the Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII), after coming across legal decisions that mention their names through Google searches.  The rulings are public information, but most are shocked to see the details of their court cases – often family law, criminal or immigration matters – on the Internet for anyone to read.”

Supreme Court of the US Chief Justice Notes Technology in Year-End Report

In his tenth report, Chief Justice John Roberts focused on information technology in the US Courts (PDF).