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Thursday, January 17, 2008

Ind. Courts - Chief Justice Shepard delivers State of the Judiciary

Bryan Corbin of the Evansville Courier & Press reports today on yesterday's address by the CJ:

Courts are using technological advancements to protect crime victims, keep drunken drivers off the road and help Hoosiers navigate their way through the judicial system. Indiana Chief Justice Randall Shepard underscored those kinds of technologies during his annual State of the Judiciary address Wednesday to a joint session of the Indiana House and Senate. * * *

Among other things, he cited:

o Domestic violence protection. When police are called to a domestic violence complaint, they routinely check whether a court-issued protective order is on file against the alleged batterer.

"It used to be that the officer could verify the existence of a protective order only by calling the county clerk's office, assuming the confrontation occurred during business hours. These gaps in information have sometimes resulted in tragedy," Shepard told lawmakers.

But now, the state is more than halfway through installing a statewide registry that immediately sends such protective orders to local police and sheriff's departments — and enters them into state police and FBI databases — so responding officers can act on them at the scene.

o Online court records. Each of the 92 counties has a separate computer system for managing public records in court cases; only some are available online.

Shepard described a pilot project in nine courts in Monroe County and one in Marion County that would attempt to connect all courts in Indiana to each other and make their records available online. The pilot project, a program called Odyssey provided by Tyler Technologies, allows users free Internet access to court schedules, motions, rulings and amounts owed. Plans call for eventually extending that system statewide, which could take years.

Not wanting to wait, Vanderburgh County is pursuing its own online case management system, DoxPop, separately from the state's project. Vanderburgh Superior Court Judge Douglas Knight said the system would provide, for a subscription fee, access to court records online, with some limited free availability. Knight hopes the County Commissioners could sign the contract with DoxPop within 90 days.

According to published reports, DoxPop is used in 44 counties and the state has not reached accord with the company on whether and how the Odyssey system would interface with DoxPop. [Emphasis added by ILB]

o Drunken driving. Shepard said until two years ago, court-ordered suspensions of driver's licenses for drunken driving were not forwarded to and updated by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles in a timely manner, meaning that a suspended driver could get behind the wheel, get pulled over, and the officer wouldn't know the license was suspended.

Now, courts send suspended-license information by computer to the BMV and police agencies.

The problem of the failure of the State Court's Judicial Technology and Automation Committee (JTAC) to provide answers about an interface with DoxPop has been addressed in several ILB entries. For background, start with this ILB entry from Dec. 17, 2007, and this ILB entry from Oct. 26, 2007. See also this Supreme Court order dated Dec. 5th, 2007.

Also notable from Corbin's story is the information that Vanderbugh County, like Marion County, is pursuing its own CMS, because it does not believe it can wait any longer. See this ILB entry from Sept. 24, 2006 re Vanderburgh County and this one from Sept. 30, 2007 re Marion County, which includes this quote:

Frustrated by the delays, however, Marion Superior Court judges sought permission from the Supreme Court to proceed with their own upgrade of the county's nearly 20-year-old case-management system, JUSTIS.

Like Odyssey, the county's new system will be Web-based and promises many of the same improvements. Employees have been working with consultants to build it from the ground up, paying for the work within the court's maintenance budget.

Here is a list of all related ILB entries.

Jon Murray of the Indianapolis Star also has a brief story today on the CJ's address. Access it here. It concludes:

During his speech, Shepard was flanked by Gov. Mitch Daniels and Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman. Dozens of black-robed judges from the Indiana Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals and county courts filled the balcony and seats on the floor.
You may read, or view online, the Indiana Supreme Court:'s 2008 State of the Judiciary: "A Court System with Reform in its Heart", presented by Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard, January 16, 2008, here. See particularly the list of nearly two dozen court system reforms.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 17, 2008 09:46 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts