NEWS RELEASE

Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts

Working effectively and cost efficiently may be the federal Judiciary's watchwords as the millennium nears. In its third yearly Report to Congress on the Optimal Utilization of Judicial Resources, submitted this month, the Judiciary outlines still more initiatives to improve the workings of the Judiciary and enhance services, while using its appropriated dollars economically. The full report is available on the Judiciary's website at www.uscourts.gov.

Throughout 1998, with additional projects slated for 1999 and 2000, the Judiciary has been improving methods of determining court staffing and judicial officer requirements; reviewing the space planning and acquisition program; improving management of defender services program resources; improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the probation and pretrial services system; enhancing the quality and efficiency of court proceedings; creating efficiencies by automating labor intensive work processes; enhancing services to court system users; reducing meeting, training, and communications costs; improving the capabilities of court employees through training; and enhancing long-range planning and budgeting efforts.

The following is a sampling of the Judiciary's work in progress:

· A two-year study will update formulas for determining staffing requirement in the courts. The new formulas will be used to allocate court staff resources beginning in fiscal year 2001, and to estimate personnel requirements beginning with the FY02 budget request.

· Over the next several years, the Judiciary plans to include some level of courtroom technologyincluding video evidence presentation systems, videoconferencing capabilities, electronic court-reporting systemsin every new construction and renovation project. The technologies can reduce trial time, lower litigation costs, improve fact-finding, enhance understanding of information and improve access to court proceedings.

· District courts with a level of prisoner civil rights case filings above the national average will have videoconferencing capabilities. At the end of FY98, 35 district courts were using videoconferencing for these cases, and the program will expand to eight more locations by the end of FY99 and nine more locations by the end of FY2000.

· Digital audio technology will be introduced in six district and bankruptcy courts to take the official record of court proceedings. Following assessment of the technology, the Judiciary will determine whether to designate the technology as an official method of taking the court record.

· Telephone interpreter servicescourt interpreter services from a remote location by phonewill be available to courts at six sites, and plans are in the works to expand the program over the next two years. The program is used in proceedings such as pretrial hearings, initial appearances, arraignments, motion hearings, and probation and pretrial services interviews.

· An electronic case filing system is currently being tested in nine district and bankruptcy courts. Electronic filing could improve service through more accurate up-to-date records, and quicker, easier access to documents by the public.

· The bankruptcy Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system will be upgraded to allow 24-hour real-time access to a court's database of publicly available records. The upgrade also will allow courts to maintain several years of data on-line. It is being tested in 15 courts with full distribution expected early in 1999.

· Individual courts are being encouraged with grants to find more ways to increase public access to records.

· The Internet could give the public electronic access to court information. Nearly 100 courts now use the Internet to post filing instructions, jury instructions, court calendars and directions. Transmitting bankruptcy notices through the Internet will make the service more practical for smaller creditors and bankruptcy practitioners, as well as cheaper than paper noticing.

· Automating the collection of magistrate judge statistics will capture data automatically during docketing, eliminating manual data entry, facilitating data analysis, and producing a uniform reliable way to collect data on the duties and workloads of magistrate judges and on cases in district courts.

· Start-up of PACTS, a nationwide case management system, will provide electronic storage and retrieval of most probation and pretrial services reports and records, as well as defendant/offender imaging.

· Mobile computing will increase the productivity of probation and pretrial services officers on supervision and investigation activities. The Judiciary completed a two-site study on its use in April 1998, and found it makes information more accessible and data entry more efficient.

· A new jury management system will soon go nationwide. The new system promises to modernize and standardize current processesincluding in-house jury selection, management, and trackingfor managing juries in district courts, reducing or eliminating inefficient, time-consuming manual work and rising vendor support costs.

· More use of videoconferencing is planned for administrative meetings, conferences and training seminars. As of January 1999, videoconferencing capabilities were installed in 85 court locations, with more district courts interested in acquiring the technology.

· Opportunities for distance learning are being pursued with plans to include interactive video teletraining, computer-based training, and desktop videoconferencing. The Judiciary currently broadcasts to courts over 20 hours weekly on retirement benefits, procurement, human resource management, and travel regulations. The Judiciary reduced its travel budget request by $1 million in FY99 in anticipation of savings generated by distance learning programs.

· With the completion of the Data Communications Network in September 1998, the Judiciary now has an internal electronic communications link for all Judiciary employees. The DCN means easy sharing of case information, opinions, and e-mail, and provides an infrastructure for Judiciary-wide software and communication and financial systems.

· A comprehensive study of the Judiciary's space and facilities program, will be completed in FY2000. The study should produce recommendations to improve planning processes and reduce future costs.

· Taking the initiative to contain the cost of defender services, the Judicial Conference approved the recommendations of the report, Federal Death Penalty Cases: Recommendations Concerning the Cost and Quality of Defense Representation, and the Judiciary continues to implement the recommendations including in the January, 1998 Report on Costs and Recommendations for the Control of Costs of the Defender Services Program. While concluding that "overall, the average cost of representation is reasonable in relation to the obligations imposed on defense counsel and the costs of prosecuting such cases", the report offered numerous steps to keep expenditures in these cases within limits. In early FY99, courts and counsel were notified about and encouraged to comply with these recommendations.

· The Judiciary is also examining the reasons for the disparity on representation costs in federal capital habeas corpus cases among districts and circuits, including a comprehensive statistical analysis of private panel attorney costs, in a March 1999 report to Congress.

· To improve management of the panel attorney program, the Judiciary is starting a new payment and management information system that promises a more efficient means of collecting additional, more timely, and better quality data.