Vol. 37, Number 7—July 2005

IT Grants Encourage Innovation

Seven information technology initiatives in six federal courts will receive nearly $1 million in grants from the Edwin L. Nelson Local Initiatives Program in fiscal year 2005. The funding will support technical skill training and applications and program development of information technology (IT) projects, which ultimately will be shared throughout the federal Judiciary.

The Edwin L. Nelson Local Initiatives Program encourages and promotes the development of local court IT systems. The applications are then posted on Ed's Place, the Judiciary's national clearinghouse for locally-developed applications, and an internal website specifically developed to encourage the sharing of expertise and collaboration on IT initiatives.

Ed's Place and the funding of grants under the Edwin L. Nelson Initiatives Program are mandated by Congress. Grant proposals are reviewed initially by the Administrative Office's Technology and Facilities Advisory Council, with final review and award selection by the Judicial Conference Committee on Information Technology.

The following projects were funded for fiscal year 2005:

Project: Automated Bail Module
Sponsor: U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Probation and Pretrial Services Office

The Automated Bail Module will automate bail reporting for pretrial services officers and integrate the bail report(s) with the Probation and Pretrial Services Automated Case Tracking-Electronic Case Management System (PACTSECM).

Project: E-Orders
Sponsor: Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas

The E-Orders application will provide a "paperless" means for submitting, routing, reviewing, disposition, and docketing of orders. Grant support will be used for technical improvements to E-Orders that improve its adaptability to other courts' local practices.

Project: Consolidated Reporting System
Sponsor: Western District of Washington District Court

The Consolidated Reporting System will identify and implement a single technology capable of producing reports from nationally supported systems.

Project: Court Hearing Scheduler
Sponsor: District of Maryland Bankruptcy Court

The Court Hearing Scheduler will be an enhancement to the bankruptcy version of CM/ECF that will allow attorneys to see and choose an available date and time to schedule hearing dates when submitting certain types of motions to the court.

Project: Multi-Court VCIS
Sponsor: District of Massachusetts Bankruptcy Court

The multi-court VCIS will provide a court customizable system supporting public access to bankruptcy case information by telephone in either English or Spanish.

Project: E-Filing for Pro Se Litigants
Sponsor: Eastern District of Missouri District Court

This program enhancement will support completion of court documents electronically by pro se litigants. The documents are uploaded to the court's electronic case filing system from public access computers in the courthouse or through the court's external website.

Program: Advanced SQL Class for CM/ECF
Sponsor: District of Massachusetts Bankruptcy Court.

The Advanced SQL class for the Case Management/Electronic Case Files system, will teach court CM/ECF system staff how to create and execute advanced SQL queries and reports.