If you follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter, you’ve undoubtedly seen (and, hopefully, ‘Liked’!) a lot of hype about a little something called eCourts. We even published an eCourts blog about it being “the most wonderful time of the year,” and we stand by that.
P.S., if you need to brush up on what eCourts actually is, read that blog.
Scott Bade, President of ImageSoft Inc., was alongside several other ImageSoft team members at eCourts 2018 in Las Vegas, NV, from Dec. 10-12. About 24 hours after arriving back in Detroit, Scott was already briefing our Paperless Podcast team on the innovative, hot-button topics covered at the conference.
You’ll have to listen to the less-than-30-minute podcast to hear everything “Scott says” about the conference but, in case you can’t wait for our 2019 podcast debut, here’s a glimpse of what to expect.
Scott Says…
Q: What made this year’s conference particularly interesting?
Scott: There has been a natural evolution of the court system. Now that most modern courts have adopted digital records management, they’re learning about how digitalize court processes – how information is flowing to and from clerks, attorneys, constituents, and the courts. So online dispute resolution (ODR), or intelligent dispute resolution (IDR), were definitely hot topics. ImageSoft has been an early advocate for ODR, so this was especially exciting for us. Imagine resolving legal disputes electronically without having to travel or be in the same, physical location as the other parties? That type of convenience is where the world is headed.
Q: What big-discussion topics seemed to thread throughout the conference?
Scott: The National Center for State Courts (NCSC), host of the bi-annual eCourts conference, has been talking a lot about the Component Model. For those who aren’t familiar with the concept, the Component Model allows courts to choose best-of-breed components instead of marrying one vendor for all their digital needs. This concept has allowed innovation to catalyze freely since smaller organizations can now compete. These open standards have been really good, and allow the systems to be interoperable.
We also had a lot of healthy conversations surrounding evidence management of larger data, such as that captured on law enforcement body cameras and surveillance video, and we even dipped into some old-school chat about digitizing paper forms for constituents to fill out online. A lot of courts have already done that, but some haven’t, so it’s important that we’re still talking about it. And, of course, we talked about Integrated Justice Information Systems (IJIS), which sets the standards for electronic filing, which is a topic of which ImageSoft keeps its thumb on the pulse.
Q: Were there any thoughts on cloud computing floating around at the conference?
Scott: You know, we’re not hearing as much fear associated with the cloud as we used to. It’s actually becoming pretty mainstream for governments and courts. Which makes sense, because today’s constituents, our tax-payers, voters, and citizens, have grown up with technology integrated in their lives, and that’s not going in reverse. They’re demanding digital access to data because they know that type of ease and convenience is possible, and if the current courts or government don’t give that, a competitor will.
Like what you’ve read? Make a New Year’s resolution to subscribe to The Paperless Productivity Podcast on Google Play or iTunes to hear all of Scott’s thoughts on eCourts 2018 and his predictions on the hottest topics for eCourts 2020.
We Want to Hear from You!
What topic do you think should be on eCourts’ agenda? What exciting innovations do you see on the horizon for the modern court system?
Respond in the comment section below, or on our Court Solutions Showcase page. We read and reply!