CourtNet

Description

CourtNet is a distributed network facility linking a set of applications and physical devices inside the court building, between courts within each state, and with the internet. The judicial staff, the clerk’s staff and the public share this platform. It provides both communications infrastructure and data interchange for text, images, video and other forms of digital information. It forms the central backbone (infrastructure) for a range of information applications designed to improve access to the justice system. The 53 system elements to follow are the applications that function within the CourtNet network. CourtNet also allows for integration of information technology that currently exists in the courts today.

Properties

Features

Distributed network of computing resources
High bandwidth private network
Available via the Internet
Data translation services to integrate with existing information
Structured in order to facilitate translation by data translation services and applications

Links courts across the state: court personnel, information, and documentation
Allows litigants, lawyers and all court personnel to communicate and share common case information
Retains user-specific information in order to allow a user to move across a wide system of applications without re-entering data
Opens access to the courts by letting users of the justice system access services of the court from any place on the internet at any time of day
Provides a platform which can be leveraged to form new solutions as litigant needs change and legal practices evolve

Discussion

Information systems that support the legal system are just now making significant inroads into the central function of courts. These systems often have two main functions: filing of a case without paper and recall of court records scanned and made available in digital format. As technology and the supported functionality improves, a much wider audience can be served by a richer set of applications and information services.

CourtNet is the proposed platform for the 53 proposed system elements. It serves the internal court staff, the legal community, and the litigants who are seeking justice. This backbone effectively allows the justice system to provide services to a wider set of locations at any time.

When litigants use the tools that are implemented in the CourtNet system, they experience a unified but flexible environment. This is important for any number of solutions which span the use of more than one tool. For example, the Story Builder and E-Mediation tools work together to allow divorcing parties to mediate on-line the allocation of a list of marital assets and other terms of their separation agreement. CourtNet allows the two applications to share information and provides the experience of a unified solution.

Extending the previous example, the divorce participants might choose to mediate their case in person rather than on-line. Information accumulated in the Story Builder could be accessed by the mediator to enable that process. Should mediation be fail or be abandoned in favor of trial, Story Builder data, as permitted under prevailing court rules, could be accessed by help center staff and the judge to aid the resolution of the case via the Shared Vision application.

The court building can provide a much wider range of logistic help if it provides guidance through electronic means like touch screens and key card readers. The ability of these tools to provide information and support court processes is increased by their relation to CourtNet. CourtNet will bring any information asset held by the court or available on the internet to the point of access.

To create flexible and compatible applications, the CourtNet system should be modular and support open implementation standards. It should coordinate with other applications to store and retrieve information from a common resource. This allows users to take any path they choose through the on-line tools and see the accumulation of their efforts thus far.

The infrastructure of CourtNet should be considered an open platform. Court information and applications will always require modification as needs and procedures evolve. The open system should encourage the modification of current applications and the implementation of new technologies.