MCP subject-matter experts Heather Pettitt, Jim Pingel, and Nicole Jensen Albrecht covered the National Association of Court Management (NACM) conference recently held in New Orleans. The following are their key takeaways.
Using artificial intelligence to automate processes and relieve staffing pressures is a thing — Like many public-sector organizations, court systems from coast to coast are dealing with staffing pressures that in many cases are acute. Much of the chatter heard at NACM concerned how artificial intelligence (AI) could be leveraged to relieve these pressures.
One example cited concerns an AI solution designed to help court systems cope with high employee turnover, which is rampant. For example, officials from Orange County (California) Superior Court revealed during a presentation that 50 percent of its workforce has less than two years of experience and 25 percent has less than one year. “The solution quickens the training process for new employees, enabling them to serve court users effectively even with limited experience,” says Jensen Albrecht, an MCP court technologies project manager.
Jensen Albrecht adds that the solution “understands” context, enabling it to perform as a robust search engine trained on court policies, procedures, and legal documents. “This ability enables clerks to find relevant information swiftly and accurately, to shorten the learning curve significantly and enabling them to serve court users effectively even when they have limited experience,” she says.
The conversation during NACM also explored how AI could be used to streamline routine, repetitive tasks to enable court clerks to focus on more complex issues and tasks that require human intelligence. For instance, electronic-filing solutions are commonly used by court systems. Now, AI could be used to automate the assignment of case numbers, check for errors, ensure that the document has been redacted properly, ensure that it has been filed in the correct place, and more.
But as exciting as this capability is, Pingel, an MCP vice president and director of the firm’s data and software integration solutions, cautioned that it’s crucial to remember that human oversight remains essential to ensure accuracy and address any issues that arise. “Humans are the experts, not the machines — so don’t blindly accept the outputs,” he says.
Nevertheless, the consensus thinking is that AI in the courts sector has arrived and is here to stay, which means that officials need to start contemplating how it can be used to greatest advantage, if they haven’t already. In other words, as they embrace the idea of AI, they also should be mulling the potential applications for AI in the courts environment.
Technology upgrades require a holistic approach — Pingel presented during the conference — alongside Nathaniel Weaver, justice tech modernization program director for the city of New Orleans — concerning a multiyear effort to replace decades-old computer systems with advanced, cloud-based technologies. MCP subject-matter experts and city project managers are collaborating on the project.
A critical element is to enable the myriad data systems used by law-enforcement agencies, court systems, and jails operating in the city and Orleans Parish to seamlessly share information in real time with authorized users whenever needed. Such information sharing previously was impossible because the systems in question were implemented independently with very little, if any, thought given to integration and interconnection, which is a common problem across the public sector, according to Pingel. He suggested that court systems need to think holistically and see across their entire ecosystem when they’re considering technology upgrades, especially system replacements.
“Replacing or upgrading a case-management system, for example, can be a once-in-a-career project,” he says. “But it also is a moment to step back and assess the system’s role in the larger ecosystem. Carve out part of the budget and part of the project timeline to improve on the assets and infrastructure the justice community shares, like data integration, analytics, cybersecurity, and network and cloud infrastructure.”
Another common mistake made by public-sector organizations, including court systems, is waiting too long to retire outdated infrastructure, according to Pingel. “Organizations should not wait until their systems are at end of life or start experiencing significant issues,” he says. “Instead, they should plan for replacements well in advance.”
This proactive approach not only prevents service disruptions but also allows for smoother transitions and better resource allocation. “It provides time to have those conversations with your justice system partners about improving integrations, analytics, and other shared resources, Pingel says.
Leveraging Six Sigma principles for process optimization — An educational session focused on the idea of applying Six Sigma methodologies to improve court-system operations. Six Sigma comprises a set of techniques and tools designed to improve operational processes and efficiencies by identifying variation in processes. It was developed by Bill Smith, a Motorola engineer in the mid-1980s, and really gained traction after Jack Welch, chairman and chief executive officer of General Electric made it central to his business strategy a decade later. Since then, tens of thousands of companies have strived to attain Six Sigma certification to reduce waste in processes, saving time and money in their organizations.
The application of Six Sigma principles to court operations was seen as a valuable tool for improving efficiency by identifying and eliminating waste. A corollary concept that is equally important concerns implementing sustainable measures and aligning them with programmatic goals, because the need for continuous improvement remains critical, according to Pettit, MCP’s newly hired vice president of court technologies. She added that the advent of new technologies and enhanced data-collection systems provides court systems with an opportunity to make better-informed decisions and to improve their performance proactively rather than reactively.
“This proactive approach is essential for providing better access to justice and meeting the judiciary's overarching goal of equal justice for all,” she says, stressing the importance of using data to iterate and improve court services continually. “This iterative process is vital for courts to move beyond simply upgrading systems and instead focus on leveraging these upgrades to make real-time improvements in service delivery.”
Where was the cybersecurity chatter? — Drawing on her previous experience as chief information officer and director of information technology for the Judicial Council of California (JCC), where her team faced daily cybersecurity threats, Pettit said she was taken aback by the relative lack of discussion during the conference about cyberattacks and how to prevent them. The fact is that cyberattacks aren’t going away — if anything, they are going to increase in number and severity. Another fact is that cyberattackers have increasingly targeted public-sector organizations, including court systems, over the last few years.
Pettit noted a “concerning shift” in focus at recent courts-sector conferences, “where discussions about artificial intelligence overshadowed the pressing need for robust cybersecurity measures,” she says.
Glenn Bischoff is MCP’s content specialist. Email him at GlennBischoff@MissionCriticalPartners.com.