全球智库信息集成服务系统

Courts Today Face a Wide Range of Challenges

• Members of the Courts Advisory Panel identified the major issues or problems in courts today in five key areas: case preparation, court information management, support for court hearings, facilities management, and people management.
• Among issues raised by the panel, issues of caseloads and the required amount of staff to handle them were prominent. So were concerns related to court security and emergency preparedness.
• Much of the panel cited issues with sharing information across jurisdiction boundaries and across criminal justice agencies, particularly problems with system compatibility. Data protection and the quality of the data entered in court information systems were also common concerns.
• The panel also voiced concerns about balance and fairness in the justice system — because the resources available to the state have the potential to overmatch the resources that all but the wealthiest individuals could use in their own defenses. Issues of how to support pro se litigants also were raised.

Innovation Needs for the Court System Fall into Eight Broad Categories

• Leverage opportunities for greater court efficiency while ensuring that technology serves justice goals.
• Improve security and emergency preparedness.
• Improve quality and utilization of shared data in the justice system.
• Strengthen analysis and use of data.
• Address concerns in maintaining and protecting the court record.
• Address basic technology shortfalls in today's courts.
• Improve court technology acquisition processes.
• Use technology for notification and public communication.

Society relies on the judicial system to play numerous roles. It is the link between law enforcement and the corrections system and serves as a check on their power over citizens. It also adjudicates civil disputes, serving as a venue for negotiation and resolution of various problems. In playing these roles, courts today are challenged by a wide range of issues, such as high caseloads, resource constraints, disparities in justice outcomes, and increasing needs to share information. For the courts to adapt to these challenges and take advantage of new opportunities to improve their ability to play their critical roles, the court system needs innovation. This report draws on published literature and new structured deliberations of a practitioner Courts Advisory Panel to frame an innovation agenda. It identifies and prioritizes potential improvements in technology, policy, and practice for the court system. Some of the top-tier needs identified by the panel and researchers include developing better tools to sort cases and match them with the process most likely to get them to an outcome efficiently and effectively, defining strategies and minimum standards for protecting the "virtual filing cabinets" that hold the court's formal records, and expanding the court-related transactions and interactions that could be done from a distance over the Internet. Such high-priority needs provide a menu of innovation options for addressing key problems or capitalizing on emerging opportunities for the court system. This report is part of a larger effort to assess and prioritize technology and related needs across the criminal justice community for the National Institute of Justice's National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center system.

• Chapter One

  Introduction

• Chapter Two

  The State of the U.S. Court System Today

• Chapter Three

  Court Technology and Practice Today

• Chapter Four

  From Courts Today to Courts Tomorrow: Identifying and Prioritizing Innovation Needs in Technology, Policy, and Practice

• Chapter Five

  Conclusions

• Appendix A

  Courts Advisory Panel Members

• Appendix B

  Courts Advisory Panel Pre-Meeting Questionnaire

• Appendix C

  Courts Advisory Panel Agenda

• Appendix D

  Detailed Methodology

• Appendix E

  Full List of Court Needs