Situation:

The First City Court Clerk's Office went online with their existing computer system (WANG-VS) in January 1988, and in the time since this system was installed, dramatic advances in technology have taken place. In order to maintain the high degree of efficiency and effectual case management that the public had come to expect from the Clerk's office, judicial administrators proposed that the current system be upgraded to incorporate the latest in data storage and retrieval technology. It was requested that the new system provide a means of managing and generating the many forms that clerks typed out manually for nearly every case filed. The clerk's office also requested that the new system perform some of the repetitive initial indexing tasks common to all new cases and case filings.

Solution:

With real world experience in trial court automation software development, Not Rocket Science met this objective by developing the Case Management System (CMS). This solution provides clerks with a tool for efficiently creating, indexing, and managing First City Court cases and forms.

Cash Register / Intake Application
Unlike the previous stand-alone cash register, an integrated intake application was developed that communicates with the case-indexing component. While incorporating all of the functionality of the previous cash register, the new application automates the initial indexing tasks that previously required manual attention from clerks. The integrated cash register also allows the indexing system to capture case cost and other data necessary for accounting. As a result, the Case Management System now maintains in real-time calculations that that were once performed manually with a calculator.

Form Management System
By leveraging native features of Adobe Acrobat, a Form Management component was developed that provides clerks with access to PDF versions of all of the paper forms. Forms that were previously completed using a manual typewriter are now generated dynamically and populated with case specific data. Form data may also be edited on-demand via Adobe Acrobat viewer before final printing occurs, and multiple copies may be generated by the click of a button.

Judge's Offices
Apart from updating the functions in the Judge's offices with a fresh, streamlined interface, the new system allows real-time updating of all case data, replacing the previous daily migration of data between two separate but identical data management systems. This allows for a simplified and centralized database with data available to all users as it is updated. Also, the new form management system immediately allowed for the addition of automated form generation, replacing the hand or type-written forms used previously.

Public Access via Internet
Finally, the use of Web-based technology allows the public to access court data remotely via the Internet using a common web browser without the hassle of cumbersome dial-up connections and specialized software.

Outcome:

The new system allows the First City Court to maintain tighter management of case data and has increased the range of management and reporting tools available, and case information can be maintained and presented with greater detail and clarity than before. The modern data base management system allows for greater and more detailed data to be stored than the previous system allowed, giving options for future enhanced functions that could not be implemented before. Also the new form management system has greatly improved the productivity of the typing pool and allows for a higher degree of professionalism, which can only enhance the image of the Court and the City of New Orleans.