Innovative use of IT in Innovative use of IT in the Federal Magistrates the Federal Magistrates ServiceService

Federal Magistrate Stuart Roberts

IT in a ‘start-up’ courtIT in a ‘start-up’ courtNeeded to be operating as a fully established court Australia wide by June 2000

• very short establishment period

• widely dispersed - Darwin to Launceston

• very small support staff - only 1 federal magistrate and 2 staff in many locations

• need to provide services in regional Australia

Leveraging existing Leveraging existing infrastructureinfrastructureThe major IT strategy has been to leverage off the existing infrastructure of the Family Court and, to a lesser extent, the Federal Court.

• demonstrated that IT resources can be successfully shared by courts, while maintaining the operational independence of each of the courts

• success in large part due to highly professional services provided by the other courts, particularly the Family Court IT services team

Access to highly Access to highly developed networks developed networks and systemsand systemsLeveraging gave immediate access to:

• Lotus Notes messaging - e-mail absolutely critical in a small widely dispersed organisation

• access to wide area network covering all required locations and access to local area networks

• the use of existing case management systems

• a range of software (eg Microsoft Office products) and experienced IT support staff

Unique requirementsUnique requirementsThe FMS needs to be different - it wasn’t established to replicate the other federal courts. Therefore some IT developments are necessarily unique, for example:

• created own web-site as part of separate corporate identity

• separate intranet - developed in Lotus Notes by Family Court but content only accessible to FMS

• developed a ‘committees database’ in Lotus Notes, in recognition of the need to manage the somewhat unique governance arrangements for the FMS flowing from its enabling legislation

Casetrack - major Casetrack - major developmentdevelopment• Family Court will talk in detail about

Casetrack CMS

• Also a major development for FMS:

– key aspect for the FMS is that we are confident our separate business processes, which will inevitably diverge from the other federal courts because of our legislative mandate to handle simpler less complex matters, can be accommodated within a common system

– another example of successful sharing of systems

• FMS development focussing on the management reporting/business intelligence capability

– significant information is available but needs reporting and analysis tools to take full advantage

CasetrackCasetrack -FMS End User Layer•uses Oracle

Discoverer

•provides a snapshot of the Casetrack Case Management System

•provides sophisticated ad hoc SQL query capabilities

•improved MIS analysis for strategic planning as well as periodical reporting

Dispersed workforceDispersed workforce• heavy reliance on e-mail as a form of communication

• no ‘admin staff’ in any location other than Melbourne, therefore need to take advantage of technology:

– use of digital recording and transmission of judgements to a central transcriber

– local office supplies sourced on-line throughCorporate Express

– payroll, accounts processed centrally - strong use of intranet on-line forms

– self booking arrangements for travel

– central on-line booking of temporary staff (court officers) through Drake

– trial use of on-line training from NETg through the corporate intranet

– use of inexpensive ‘off the shelf’ software for payroll and finance eg MYOB for centralised processing

Challenge of operating in Challenge of operating in regional Australiaregional Australia

Strong commitment of the court to regional services:

• all federal magistrates and associates using Compaq notebooks on circuit- some trialing PDAs

• trial of portable digital court recording software

• working with regional courts to improve telecommunication facilities

• use of videoconferencing• particularly useful in call-overs prior to conducting circuits

• trialing ABS mapping software to ensure current and future circuits are targeting the appropriate regional locations

Other developmentsOther developments

• trialing voice recognition for some federal magistrates

• use of telephone mentions :

– reduces costs for clients - no need to attend court

– conducted in same manner as if in court

– telephone conference booked through Telstra

– Telstra records the call and forwards the tape to FMS

– tapes can be transcribed if necessary by transcription provider

• development of a database to track and distribute judgments for publication (focus of next series of slides)

Judgments & AppealsJudgments & Appeals

A database to track and distribute judgments for publication

Judgments ProcessJudgments Process

–Issue a Citation

–Judgments Formatting

–Judgments Distribution

–Reporting and Analysis

Judgments & Appeals

Issuing CitationsIssuing Citations•Associates requests a Citation from Judgment Officer

–sends Citation Request Form

•Citation obtained from the FMC Data Manager database

–automatically issued

•Citation Request form sent back to associates with new Citation

–completes the audit trail

* FMS Matter No

* Parties

* FM

Jurisdiction please tick a box Family LawGeneral Federal Law

Category of please tick a box

Jurisdiction

Child SupportFamily Law

Administrative LawBankruptcyHuman RightsMigrationPrivacyTrade PracticesPractice/Procedure & Costs

Citation(issued by Judgments Officer)

Judgments & Appeals

Judgment FormattingJudgment Formatting•Judgment Officer receives Judgment for quality control

– family law judgments ‘sanitised’

•Completed judgment lodged on FMS Intranet

•Completed judgments sent to Information Officer for distributing to external publishers

•Judgments details entered into FMC Data Manager database

Judgments & Appeals

Judgment DistributionJudgment DistributionJudgments sent electronically to various external publishing houses and FMS Web-site eg:

Butterworths

CCH

Austlii

Casebase

Timebase

Law Book Company

HREOC

AG’s dept

AAT

…. And more

Judgments & Appeals

Reporting & AnalysisReporting & Analysis

FMC Data Manager

•Built in MS Access primarily designed to track the judgments process from the issuing of Citations, the distribution process on to the appeals process

•Replaced the mainly manual reporting process done in MS Word and MS Excel

•Reduced data entry times

•Improved reporting capabilities

•Analysis of the process has allowed for productivity improvements and streamlining of systems

Judgments & Appeals

The switchboardThe switchboard

All functions are accessed through the one page

Areas include:

APPEALS

DISTRIBUTION

JUDGMENTS

REPORTS

SEARCH

Judgments & Appeals

An exampleAn exampleIssuing a Citation Screens

•shows the last 5 citations for Family Law and General Federal Law at a glance

•allows searching for Matter numbers to establish whether any other judgments or appeals are attached to this number

•allows selection of Jurisdiction

•automatically chooses next available citation

•starts the tracking process

•reports, that reflect any new additions, can now be produced to immediately rather than later as with previous manual systems

•reduces repeat data entry significantly

Judgments & Appeals

Reports & further Reports & further developmentdevelopmentReports

•many reports available in MS Access and MS Word formats

•available immediately

•end user can request new reports to aid in statistical analysis

Future

•Web Interface and query search functionality for FM’s and associates

•Integration with Lotus Notes databases

Judgments & Appeals

FutureFutureFocus on on-line strategies that enable clients to access services wherever they are:

• enable them to interact with the court without having to physically leave their community to go to a court location

• bring the court to them, electronically and through effective court circuits

Challenge in making these strategies work for legal professionals and self represented litigants.