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Information
Technology Management
What
This Core Competency Is and Why It Is Important
 Curriculum
Guidelines
Court
Purposes and Processes
Vision
and Leadership Fundamentals Technology
Management Projects
Information Technology is a tool,
not an end unto itself. It is
both difficult to implement and to manage.
With its use can come conflicts about budgets, organizational
relations, administrative authority, processes, and procedures, and even
the best way to process cases. Despite these potential conflicts,
Information Technology clearly can improve justice system and court
performance through instant, integrated, and linked information.
Correct judicial decisions require
timely, complete, and accurate information.
When Information Technology delivers on its promise, the right
people are more likely than not able to get the information they need, at
the right time, and in the right format.
Because of its potential both to improve and to
entangle the judiciary, court leaders must take responsibility for the use
of technology in their courts. Direction,
policy decisions, and management oversight of Information Technology
cannot be left solely to technical staff.
Court leaders must ensure that technology serves the courts
purposes and that it is managed effectively.
Much is at stake.
With a click of their mouse, users can move with ease through data
and information that formerly was dispersed in fragmented and often poorly
designed electronic systems, libraries, and paper records.
This improves justice, increases efficiency, and empowers end users
and increases their morale. But
new technology alone will not improve inefficient work processes. The new
electronic system must be well designed.
The information delivered to end users must be accurate.
The end users must know both what they are trying to do and how to
do it. When Information
Technology is applied skillfully, communication and decisions, both
judicial and managerial, can be improved.
Through technology, judges can
bring together relevant case histories and documents, communicate with
attorneys and social service staff, whether internal or external to the
court, and take and maintain control of their calendars. Cases and information about them can be accessed any time,
from the bench, in chambers, in administrative offices, on the road, and
at home.
Information Technology can enable
improved case management through court-prompted and supervised timely
lawyer exchange of reliable information.
As a result, the same or better justice is achieved, sooner for
many cases. Judicial
attention then can be focused on the remaining cases as they are managed
to closure later in the judicial process. Good Information Technology
supports case management, service delivery, and management reports in any
size court. It is essential in large jurisdictions.
A century ago, when society was
less mobile, when most business was conducted locally, when judges could
remember all of their cases, and when everyone knew their neighbors, paper
files supplemented later by crude computerization were adequate.
Even today, paper remains the medium of choice for many courts and
court users. Today, however,
more and more people routinely communicate electronically.
Today, records of civil judgments and satisfactions are used
nationally and internationally. Today,
police officers and prosecutors, pretrial and probation staff, and judges
on the opposite coast need to know “right now” about criminal
histories and the existence and status of warrants and protection orders.
No matter what their size, advanced electronic systems can help
courts organize and manage the documents that are filed and the hearings
that are held each day.
Judges who know about a
defendant’s prior convictions and other matters pending and disposed in
their own and other jurisdictions can make better bail decisions and
impose more appropriate sentences. Drug
courts and others closely monitoring defendants and probationers can learn
instantly about re-arrests through “subscription/notification”
functions. Technology aids the court in recording legal status and in
making judicial decisions and their consequences more reliable and
transparent in traffic, criminal, civil, and domestic relations cases.
With accurate real-time financial
reports, courts also are better able to meet their fiduciary
responsibilities. Information
Technology enables better use of court resources, including judges, staff,
equipment, and courtrooms. The
system can be more accountable. But
these and other equally significant benefits are not guaranteed. Skill is
needed in the design of Information Technology and its day-to-day
management, maintenance, and upgrade.
System design; expectations of
efficient and instant service; significant changes in people’s mobility
and the social, political, and economic environment; and caseload volume
and complexity challenge all courts.
As courts deploy technology to meet these challenges, other issues
arise:
-
Technology changes rapidly while
technology design and implementation can take time.
Resulting applications can be dated almost as soon as they are
implemented.
-
Technology often is overlaid
incrementally on complex and archaic procedures and processes.
-
It is difficult and sometimes
impractical to mirror the full complexity of justice system and court
processes in information systems.
-
Although the same rules and
procedures may govern courts within a state, the size of the court,
the nature of the facility and local legal culture, among other
factors, drive differences in specialization and the division of labor
among staff. One-size-fits-all
solutions do not work.
-
Many key components of information
management systems, people, processes, data, and facilities are
already in place. New
hardware and software often are introduced without adequate attention
to how they fit within this existing environment.
Almost always, re-engineering of justice system and court
business processes and training are needed.
-
Expectations about court software
are commonly unrealistic. Software
developed by court staff usually has limitations.
World-class designers are not available at salaries courts can
afford. Because courts are a small market for software designers,
finding vendors whose court products are world-class and whose
financial base is strong enough to maintain the software’s currency
and functionality also is problematic.
Information Technology is carried
out in a variety of settings. In
some court systems, technology services come from an external organization
with no direct reporting relationship to leaders in the courts using the
systems. A county information
technology group or the state court administrator’s office may be
responsible for technology support of the trial court.
Leaders in other trial courts directly supervise technology staff,
vendors, resources, and projects. If
the promise of technology is to be real rather than imagined, all these
alternative organizational arrangements, and any other variant, demand
skilled leadership and supervision.
Managing technology requires some
degree of technical competence. A
court leader must be comfortable with and have some proficiency with
Information Technology, because it is impossible to manage that which one
does not adequately understand.
Increasingly, courts are moving
closer to a paperless environment, when the entire case, including all of
the data, documents, recordings and transcripts of hearings, evidence, and
legal reference materials will be digital.
Court leaders need to keep pace with technologies such as:
digital audio and video recording, video teleconferencing, voice
recognition, the Internet, laptops, imaging, electronic mail and
calendars, integrated justice software, alternative hardware architecture,
assistive listening devices, electronic evidence presentation, and
high-tech security in the courtroom and in the courthouse.
Integration of court technology with other justice organizations
enables open, smooth, and timely information flow.
Technology can improve the speed, consistency, and fairness of
decisions. Improvement in a
court’s management can be dramatic.
Court
leaders who effectively manage Information Technology know both the
limitations and the challenges it presents.
They also know that if its promise is realized, Information
Technology can improve justice and court efficiency and increase public
trust and confidence.
Court
Purposes and Processes
Vision
and Leadership Fundamentals Technology
Management Projects
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