By: Josh Townsend, Account Executive, ImageSoft
Washington, D.C. – hands down – is one of the prettiest and most tourist friendly cities in the world. It’s just one of the many reasons why we enjoyed the recent annual conference of the National Association for Court Management, this year held in conjunction with the International Association for Court Administration. This year’s conference was a weeklong examination of various challenges and solutions facing judicial administration professionals and judges, including technology and its deployment. And it included a spectacular evening of networking, fun and great food, dancing the night away at the spectacular Library of Congress after hours.
How to integrate efiling with case workflow
Among the themes we heard from attendees was an overarching question of how to deal with efiling and electronic case workflow, both for states that have and have not mandated efiling. Courts are eager to streamline their operations and shepherd scarce resources to the most strategic areas.
As states are beginning to use efiling processes to receive documents, court administrative staff are looking for answers as to how to roll out an automated process and how to tie efiling with the various case management systems used by other courts, prosecutors, and law enforcement. So many efiling systems are available; however, many do not integrate with existing case management systems.
Looping judges into the electronic case workflow
A second theme we heard at the conference was how to create a system that fits the needs of judges.
When a state mandates efiling, courts want document management with efiling that has the ability to move documents from clerks to judges using an automated workflow and case management. Courts might receive efiled documents, but if the court has to put them into a PDF and print them out for the judges to use, the streamlining process isn’t working.
Judges have specific requirements as far as case management is concerned. Once the court receives a document, how will the court give judges access to the documents? Similarly, courts are looking for a process that mimics paper processes so that judges can annotate files, search, bookmark, add highlights, etc. Each judge works in a unique way – file views must be customizable to each judge. Conference attendees wanted to know how to customize the automated solution to fit the particular needs of each judge while providing an intuitive experience.
JusticeTech from ImageSoft answers efiling concerns
TrueFiling, JusticeTech’s electronic filing solution from ImageSoft, expedites justice by automating file handling and streamlining case workflow. It is a Web-based solution, available 24/7, that integrates with any case management and document management system. Created to meet or exceed industry standards, TrueFiling is Oasis ECF conformant.
TrueFiling automates the creation of new cases, allows search functions through existing files, and streamlines the addition of new filings to open cases. Courts can send data from approved filings to your case management system, eliminating manual re-keying. Courts reduce costs related to administrative overhead, storage, postage, office supplies, and more.
TrueFiling couples with OnBase single enterprise information platform to manage content, workflow and cases. It helps courts become more efficient and agile in providing justice.
OnBase captures files and organizes them into a single electronic case file. It automates processes and creates routing rules for case file processing. Content is accessible from various devices, anywhere, anytime and can be shared among stakeholders, including law enforcement, prosecutors, DOT, etc. Maintaining the security and integrity of content is ensured with a full audit trail and granular security. Reporting using a set of 180 pre-configured report templates or creating customized reports is an easy process, which reduces the burden of providing information to other agencies.
Solutions for the bench
Courts are looking for solutions that give judges the freedom to design case file viewing and markup to fit their particular styles and processes. aiSmartBench gives judges a solution that allows them to customize file management while still integrating with the host of different case management systems. aiSmartBench currently integrates with 17 different case management systems; it is designed to integrate with any case management system that can exchange and provide the required data. Moreover, it gives the judge the power to customize how files appear and how the judge interacts with files.
What’s next?
We’re looking forward to following up with attendees from the NACM conference over the next few weeks to continue to answer questions about streamlining court operations and saving resources.
While you were at the NACM conference, did you happen to see our crumpled paper video?