II. Needs Assessment

A. Findings of JCIT Subcommittees and Studies

A summary list of findings on the following pages. Findings are categorized based on their relevance to the major functional areas of JCIT and OCA operations:

Findings of JCIT Subcommittees and Studies
Functional Areas Findings	User Focus Subcom-mittees	Issue Focus Subcom-mittees	Rural Courts Study
Judicial Committee on Information Technology
Courts are ripe for change ­ they are already utilizing IT in imaginative ways, are anxious to increase their use of IT, and are experiencing turnover in important judicial functions.
Judicial officers in rural districts are knowledgeable about IT and often anxious to participate in IT change.
Judicial officer have substantial professional duties beyond their judicial duties; they do not necessarily distinguish between those duties as a judicial officer
Without incentives (money, expertise, and grants) and requirements (information technology standards and reporting requirements) counties and courts will not successfully adopt the information technologies that will best suit their needs.
Courts would like to provide free public access to some case-level information and documents on the internet, but they are also concerned about the loss of revenue.
Courts are concerned about privacy issues related to court data on the internet.
Courts need one integrated justice solution for all types of cases.
Large counties have already made major investments in court automation. Dollar savings are difficult to measure; however, more work is being accomplished more efficiently.
A standard information technology package should be identified for court officials: case management software; electronic benchbooks, electronic legal research, electronic procedure manuals; electronic mail; and security.
Texas needs to establish a strategy for statewide court data collection to satisfy state and federal reporting requirements
The justice of the peace and municipal courts have been given greater responsibility through expanded jurisdiction over recent years. This has increased the numbers of cases in these courts. These have not factors in local funding decisions by county commissioner's court and city councils.
Local governments of similar size have vastly different resources; El Paso County has a $16 billion tax base whereas Travis County has a $50 billion tax base.
Technology exists that can reduce the barriers of the court to the hearing impaired and the sight impaired
ADA legislation identifies captioning or Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) in its definition as an "auxiliary aid" for persons with hearing impairments.
A method should be established to register vendors of court case management software and electronic filing services.
Judicial Help Desk
The most common complaints were about the lack of reliable support and adequate technology training rather than the need for hardware and software.
Rural districts are running Windows-based applications rather than DOS-based applications.
Systematic training and support are key elements missing in court technology implementations.
Courts want better services from OCA in the areas of communication, training, and technical assistance.
Judicial Internet Server
Courts are beginning to use the internet as a business tool (5 of eight county courthouses in rural courts study)
Courts would like to provide free public access to some case-level information and documents on the internet, but they are also concerned about the loss of revenue.
Courts are concerned about privacy issues related to court data on the internet.
There is a great unmet need for trial courts to access each others data and documents.
Judges need access to information about which social service providers are currently licensed; judges currently use the phone book as their reference source.
The courts feel that it is inappropriate to allow advertising on their webpages.
State Telecommunications Infrastructure
Courts are beginning to use the internet as a business tool (5 of eight county courthouses in rural courts study)
Courts are concerned about the implications of granting internet access to their employees.
Courts are very concerned about security and privacy as they relate to statewide networks.
There is a great unmet need for trial courts to access each others data and documents, and to access their own data from remote locations.
Justice of the peace and municipal courts need to, but cannot, share data. For example: these courts have jurisdiction over a juvenile's first two class C misdemeanors, but subsequent offenses must be forwarded to the juvenile court (district or county-level court with juvenile jurisdiction).
Judicial Information Management System
Rural districts are running Windows-based applications rather than DOS-based applications.
Electronic access to court documents is needed in jurisdictions of all types
Courts would like to provide free public access to some case-level information and documents on the internet, but they are also concerned about the loss of revenue.
Courts need an electronic document management solution.
There is a great unmet need for trial courts to access each others data and documents.
Courts need one integrated justice solution for all types of cases.
An integrated justice system must include automation of prosecutor functions.
Some courts want a state software system rather than vendor systems because of possible conflicts of interest; history of performance and support problems with vendors;
Justice of the peace and municipal courts need to, but cannot, share data. For example: these courts have jurisdiction over a juvenile's first two class C misdemeanors, but subsequent offenses must be forwarded to the juvenile court (district or county-level court with juvenile jurisdiction).
Judgments of the courts are not always enforced because of a lack of technology to track the judgments and compliance with the judgments.
Local governments would like to see more competition in court technology to lower the cost, increase the functionality, and facilitate data sharing.
Case managements systems should be integrated with electronic filing systems
Trial & Appellate Court Technology
Courts have a greater need for adequate support and technology training rather than for hardware and software.
Rural districts are running Windows-based applications rather than DOS-based applications.
Rural districts buy machines off the shelf and often have them customized rather than receiving hand-me-down computers.
Rural courts generally do not have local area networks for their computer systems
Courts need an electronic document management solution.
Courts want better services from OCA in the areas of communication; more training during technical assistance site visits
Some judges do not have access to state statutes.
Some courts are experiencing difficulties with commissioner's courts and city councils to fund necessary maintenance, replacements, and upgrades to existing technology in order to stay operational.

B. JCIT Goals Aligned with Assessment of Needs

Based on its extensive needs analysis work, JCIT has shaped goals for the on-going investment in court information technology. The courts need to implement information technology that makes them more accessible to each other, to other government entities, to attorneys, and the public. Each court, in a consistent manner statewide, should pursue integrated justice information systems, electronic filing, and use of the internet to publish information about the court.

JCIT's goals are to:

• increase access to the courts, court data, and court documents;

- keep the courts' customers more informed;

- provide the tools to deliver timely, reliable, pertinent information to decision-makers;

- increase the friendliness of the courts' processes;

• increase court efficiency and effectiveness;

- increase the reliability and support of court technology systems;

- reduce the generation of paper based documents and reports;

- increase the speed of communication in the justice system;

- reduce the amount of redundant data entry and data entry errors in the justice system;

- enable the courts to administer the cases of a very mobile society;

- enable the courts to administer increasing caseloads;

- make it easier for courts to successfully implement information technology;

• provide assistance to rural courts;
  
• increase the amount and rate of revenue collected in court cases (see Appendix C);
  
• increase reliability of data in court information systems;
  
• improve compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act; and
  
• improve compliance with federal reporting guidelines.
  

C. Key Information Technology Elements

JCIT identified the following as key elements in serving the courts needs, accomplishing JCIT's goals, and automating court workflow and management:

• technical assistance and on-going support (Help Desk)
• training
• basic computer infrastructure (computers, printers, local area networks, and voice mail)
• wide area networks (including telecommunications, the Internet, electronic mail, and video conferencing)
• office suite software (word processor, spreadsheet, etc.)
• case management software (case tracking, scheduling, reports, notices, revenue, data sharing with other courts and other agencies, etc.)
• electronic filing (systems which allow attorneys and self-represented litigants to submit electronic documents, such as word processor files, rather than traditional paper copies)
• document management systems (a software only or hardware and software tool that is used to organize electronic documents)
• electronic legal research (e.g. Lexis-Nexis, WestLaw, etc.)
• electronic reference tools (benchbooks, procedure manuals, court rules, standard forms, standard jury charges, etc.)
• public access tools (internet web pages, electronic kiosks, etc.)
  

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