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Case Management System Migration for the 4Th Judicial District of Nebraska

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Case Management System Migration for the 4Th Judicial District of Nebraska al Center forSc State Courts Case Management System Migration for the 4th Judicial District of Nebraska Larry Webster, Project Director John Matthias, Project Consultant Daniel J. Hall, Vice President Court Consulting Services National Center for State Courts 707 17th Street, Suite 2900 Denver, CO 80202 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Background 2 III. Case Management Systems and Business Process Assessment 4 A. Methodology 4 B. Business Processes Reviewed 4 C. Business Processes Affected by JUSTICE Transition 7 1) Changes that May Eliminate Work and Improve Business Processes 8 2) Process Issues that Will Require Changes to JUSTICE 9 3) Required Business Process Changes 12 4) Additional Changes that Should Be Considered 14 D. General Principles 15 1) One-Stop Customer Service 15 2) Immediate Availability of Digital Documents 16 3) Recording Courtroom Activity 16 4) Integrated Justice 16 5) Eliminate Unnecessary Parallel Indexing and Recordkeeping Systems 16 6) Eliminate Disparity of Practice 16 IV. District Court Clerk Organizational Changes 18 V. Electronic Document Management Analysis 22 A. General Principles 22 B. Content Manager 22 C. Project Gabe 23 D. JUSTICE EDMS 23 E. E-filing with JUSTICE 23 VI. Court Policy Environment 24 A. Rule 4-2 Pleadings 25 B. Rule 4-2 Computer Database 25 C. Rule 4-4 Criminal Cases 25 D. Rule 4-6 Dismissals and Settlements 25 E. Rule 4-10 Case Progression 26 F. Rule 4-12 Assignment of Cases 26 G. Rule 4-17 Garnishments 26 VII. Public Access to Court Records 28 VIII. Integration Analysis 29 A. Introduction 29 B. Current CJIS Functions and Interfaces to Be Retained 1) Criminal Complaint 30 2) Prisoner Transport 33 3) Juvenile Court Out-of-Home Placements Oracle Batch Payment 34 4) Attorney Fees Weekly Oracle Batch Payment 35 5) Monthly Ledgers Microfiche 37 C. Information Exchanges to Be Extended or Added in JUSTICE 38 1) Transfer of Case — Bindover and Appeal 38 2) Tax Foreclosure Initiation 40 3) Disposition Reporting 43 4) Retrieve Mug Shot 43 5) Issue/Recall/Served Arrest Warrant Alert and Notification 43 6) Commitment/Release Order ("e-Mittimus") 43 7) Enter Service of Civil Papers Information 44 8) E-mail Integration 44 D. CJIS Interfaces to Be Discontinued 45 1) NCJIS File Transfer 45 2) Protection Order Central Registry 45 3) Electronic Docketing 45 4) Child Support 45 5) District Court Checks 46 6) District Court Payment Warrants and Paid Warrants 46 7) Automatic Check Payments 46 IX. Technical Environment 47 A. Equipment 47 B. Software 47 C. Telecommunications 47 D. Security 48 E. Staff Support 48 X. Data and Document Conversion Strategy 50 A. Data Conversion 50 B. CHARTS Data 51 C. Image Conversion 51 XI. Implementation Plan 53 A. Pre-Implementation Phase 54 1) Agreement between 4th District and State Court Administrator 54 2) Business Process Changes 55 3) Organizational Changes 55 4) JUSTICE System Modifications 56 5) DOT.Comm Decision and Negotiations 57 6) Design of System Interfaces 57 7) Startup Plan 57 B. Implementation Phase 57 1) Gap Analysis 57 2) Interface Development 58 3) Data and Document Conversion Testing 58 4) Installation, Configuration, and Testing 58 5) Report and Document Template Development 59 6) Training 59 7) Business Process and Organizational Change 59 8) Data and Document Conversion 59 9) Start Up 59 10) Interface Implementation 59 C. Post-Implementation Phase 60 D. Costs 60 E. Timeline 62 XII. Project Management and Quality Assurance 64 XIII. Summary 65 Appendix A: Equipment List 66 Appendix B: Agreement for Installation of Justice 67 Appendix C: Justice Information Exchange Model (JIEM) Documentation 70 Case Management System Migration for the 4th Judicial District of Nebraska Final Report I. INTRODUCTION The National Center for State Courts (NCSC), in response to a request from the 4th Judicial District of Nebraska, submitted a proposal to develop an impact assessment and implementation and integration plan for migration from the CJIS case management system for the 4th Judicial District to the case management system (JUSTICE) used by courts elsewhere in the state. The proposal, based on a draft RFP that was prepared by court officials, outlined a work plan consisting of the following tasks: • Background Research and Planning • CMS and Business Process Assessment • Integration Assessment • Application Infrastructure Assessment • Court Policy Environment • Conversion Strategy • Electronic Document Management System • Preparation of Draft Report • Presentation of Draft Report • Presentation of Final Report • Project Management The proposal was accepted and began in February 2008. After eight site visits, extensive research, and analysis, the following report has been prepared. It documents the findings of each stage of the assessment and outlines an implementation plan. During the course of the project, a number of issues have been resolved and others have appeared. Getting people together in and of itself, has led to a higher level of understanding and greater desire to work together to make the project a success. The officials and staff of the 4th District are to be congratulated for their vision, dedication, and hard work. The NCSC project team is very optimistic about the future of this effort. National Center for State Courts Case Management System Migration for the 41`11 Judicial District of Nebraska Final Report II. BACKGROUND The Fourth Judicial District Court of Nebraska is a general jurisdiction trial court serving Douglas County including Omaha. It has a population of nearly 1.5 million residents and sixteen judges. More than 14,000 cases are filed each year. The county includes roughly one fourth of the state's population, 29 percent of its judges, and 34 percent of District Court cases filed in the state. The Fourth Judicial District Court has general, original, and appellate jurisdiction in all matters, both civil and criminal including domestic relations, paternity, felony criminal, equity, and civil cases involving more than $51,000. The District Court hears appeals from the County Court and various administrative agencies. The Douglas County Separate Juvenile Court handles matters involving neglected, dependent, and delinquent children. The court also has jurisdiction in domestic relations cases where the care, support, or custody of minor children is an issue. It has five judges and heard just over 2,500 cases in 2007; about 17 percent of the state total. Nebraska counties with at least 7,000 inhabitants are required to have a Clerk of the District Court elected by the voters. The Clerk of the District Court performs administrative duties associated with the court. Functions of the clerk's office include accepting documents; entering and validating data in computer systems; processing and recording minutes of court activities; monitoring case progress; processing and certifying writs, orders, judgments, warrants, and other documents; sending notices; preparing court files; managing bonds; collecting, accounting for, and distributing fines, fees, costs, and restitution; gathering statistics; processing jail commitments and releases; managing records; working with juries; and a host of similar duties. The courts and clerk of Douglas County are supported by several computer systems. Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) is the primary case management system for the district. CJIS shares information with other systems supporting the sheriff, prosecutor, and others in the county. EDS (Electronic Docketing System) is a system used to prepare and manage orders and minutes of court events. Content Manager is a document imaging system that currently holds roughly four million documents. The juvenile court also uses a stand-alone calendaiing system developed by DOT.Comm, the IT support organization for the city and county. The greatest benefit of the transition to JUSTICE will be the merging of all of these systems into one support mechanism for the clerk and courts. The CJIS system has worked reasonably well, but is aging. The courts desire to join the rest of the Nebraska Judicial Branch by using a case management system known as JUSTICE. JUSTICE provides integrated electronic document management, electronic filing, and other features not currently available in CJIS. The remainder of this report is divided into the following sections: • Case Management Systems and Business Process Assessment • District Court Clerk Organizational Changes • Electronic Document Management Analysis • Court Policy Environment • Public Access to Court Records National Center for State Courts 2 Case Management System Migration for the 4th Judicial District of Nebraska Final Report • Integration Analysis • Technical Environment • Data and Document Conversion Strategy • Implementation Plan, and • Project Management and Quality Assurance. National Center for State Courts 3 Case Management System Migration for the 4th Judicial District of Nebraska Final Report III. CASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND BUSINESS PROCESS ASSESSMENT A. Methodology The NCSC project team used a number of information sources to compare business processes and case management systems. Observation of work routines in Douglas County was the primary reference. Comparative observations were made in Lancaster County, the second largest county in the state, and one that uses the JUSTICE case management system. Sue Nieto of the state court administrator (SCA) staff also provided helpful information
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