Technology

Among IT program accomplishments during FY 2007 was great progress in reducing the number of servers hosting major Judiciary applications. The Cost-containment Success section of this report describes the numerous results of this effort.

Improving Communications Infrastructure
Two major efforts are under way related to changing the telecommunications infrastructure for the Judiciary. First, the contractual transition from GSA FTS2001 to GSA Networx will drive the acquisition of new data communications network (DCN) infrastructure and services. Parallel tasks associated with the actual network redesign are ongoing, including developing the

Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF)
Electronic filing through CM/ECF has become the norm in the district and bankruptcy courts. All of those courts, except one district court and one bankruptcy court, have now implemented the system. Live operation with CM/ECF, including attorney fillings, is now underway in three bankruptcy appellate panels and three courts of appeals, with the rest to follow during 2008.

More than 300,000 attorneys around the country and the world have now filed electronically using CM/ECF. During the past year, users submitted over 40 million docket entries into the system. Nationwide, nearly half of those entries were made by attorneys rather than by court staff; and in the bankruptcy courts over 90 percent of the case openings were entered by attorneys. Hundreds of thousands of other users retrieved case information through the system's public access (PACER) feature, and the fees they paid for those retrievals have contributed to funding for the system.

The AO continued providing operational support to the courts in their use of CM/ECF, and enhancing all three systems—bankruptcy, district and appellate—with needed new features and software releases. For example, five releases of CM/ECF were issued during the year to help bankruptcy courts meet new case processing and statistical reporting requirements of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005.

Working together, the courts and the AO identified more new capabilities that will enable CM/ECF to deliver ever greater benefit to the courts, the bar, and the public. A few of those include providing additional features for judges and chambers staff, further automating the quality assurance features that prevent or detect user errors, and further streamlining user interfaces. Work has begun on some of those new capabilities.

The AO continued to provide CM/ECF training for the courts. The annual CM/ECF operational practices forums drew 300 district attendees and 350 bankruptcy attendees. Run by staff from the AO court administration divisions in cooperation with the Federal Judicial Center, the forums provide annual sessions for CM/ECF court users to receive the latest technical instruction in the application and to share experiences and tips.

Remote Access Expands

Judiciary users now can securely connect to the
data communications network from any trusted computer.

Remote Access
The Administrative Office in 2007 launched JPort, a new system to offer judges and Judiciary staff secure and easy remote access to Judiciary information via private networks. Remote access supports the goal of a virtual office or workplace for teleworkers and for disaster recovery as part of COOP plans. The new remote-access virtual private network (VPN) system is based on secure sockets layer (SSL) protocols and allows Judiciary users to connect to the DCN from any trusted computing device with an Internet browser and connection. Since its release, the JPort system has grown to nearly 2,000 users a month and more than 15,500 VPN user accounts, representing half the Judiciary population. This capability joins other remote access solutions already in place, including:

• JRAN — Judiciary Remote Access to Notes provides access to Judiciary e-mail from any machine via an Internet browser.
• VPN Client — Offers a secure client connection via office-issued laptops or personal computers in residences or other locations frequently used for work.
• BlackBerry — The handheld personal digital assistant for remote mobile messaging and Internet access.
• Good Mobile Messaging — Supports cellular phone access to the Judiciary e-mail system.
• Cellular/Wireless Broadband Cards — Vendor cards enable wireless laptop Internet access to use the VPN Client or JPort SSL VPN systems.

The Judiciary's Lotus Notes e-mail system, including remote access applications, currently supports the sending and receiving of encrypted email messages. By the beginning of 2008, users will be able to access and read these encrypted messages on both the BlackBerry and Good Mobile Messaging devices, thus improving security and functionality.

Measures to Block Unwanted E-mail Messages
Like most e-mail systems, the Judiciary's Data Communications Network has been adversely affected by spam.

	E-mail Spam January 2007 Through October 2007 Month Total Number of Messages Number of Spam Messages Percent of Spam Messages Jan 2007 Feb 2007 Mar 2007 Apr 2007 May 2007 Jun 2007 Jul 2007 Aug 2007 Sept 2007 Oct 2007 10,232,535 10,652,963 12,346,645 12,751,462 14,723,714 15,308,000 17,200,000 25,000,000 28,800,000 38,876,254 5,112,159 5,926,809 6,953,049 7,591,352 8,576,705 11,021,760 12,556,000 20,000,000 23,644,800 33,433,570 50 56 56 60 58 72 73 80 82 86

The accompanying table shows dramatic growth in the number of messages processed by the Judiciary's Internet gateways and the percentages that are spam.

Central Violations Bureau
The Central Violations Bureau (CVB) provides participating U.S. district courts and federal law enforcement agencies with an efficient processing system for handling petty offenses and some misdemeanor cases initiated by a violation notice. During fiscal year 2007, the CVB processed more than 350,000 citations and collected approximately $20 million in fines and forfeitures that was deposited in the Crime Victims Fund. In addition, approximately $5.5 million was collected through a $25 processing fee, and those funds were used to support the operations of the Judiciary. The CVB also fielded approximately 500,000 telephone calls and e-mails from the public, courts, and law enforcement agencies.

During the year, the CVB worked with the U.S. Forest Service to pilot an electronic ticketing process for quicker, more accurate, and less costly ticket writing and processing, with information stored in a central Forest Service database and passed securely to the CVB.

Magistrate Judge Statistics Through Automated Records
District courts are now reporting magistrate judge workload statistics using MJSTAR, the automated reporting function in CM/ECF that is replacing the JS-43 form. The goal of MJSTAR is to improve the consistency and reliability of magistrate judge statistical information nationwide by minimizing the manual entry of data and standardizing data collection methods throughout the courts. As of November 1, 2007, 53 district courts were live on MJSTAR. Efforts are underway to assist the remaining district courts with conversion to MJSTAR.

NewSTATS
The New Streamline Timely Access to Statistics (NewSTATS) project continues to replace the current statistical system components that collect, process, and report caseload data. NewSTATS has created a modern data-mart that will increase the ability of the Judiciary to obtain more complete and meaningful caseload information and to conduct more timely, accurate, and effective data analyses and forecasts. Resources required for NewSTATS were greatly impacted by a necessary shift in priorities from civil cases to bankruptcy cases in order to fulfill the Judiciary's reporting obligations under the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. NewSTATS is currently receiving data from bankruptcy courts and will begin processing civil case data in 2008.

Availability of Electronic Transcripts of Proceedings
In September 2007, the Judicial Conference adopted a policy regarding the electronic availability of transcripts of court proceedings. The new policy makes transcripts in the case files available in the CM/ECF system and satisfies requirements of the E-Government Act of 2002. Work on this effort has been lengthy and thorough to meet the needs of all parties.

Electronic transcripts, once ordered by a party or the court and produced by the court reporter, will be available for public inspection without charge at the clerk's office as soon as they are provided to the clerk of court as required by 28 U.S.C. §753. For 90 days after delivery to the clerks' offices, however, public purchases of either paper or electronic transcripts must be made through the court reporter or transcriber, as appropriate, thereby protecting rights of court reporters to charge for copies immediately after preparation. A docket entry in the CM/ECF system will provide information as to how to contact the reporter or transcriber. Electronic public access to transcripts through the PACER system will be available at eight cents per page beginning 90 days after the court reporter or transcriber has provided the transcript to the clerk. The transcript will be available in CM/ECF for court use at all times.

CM/ECF systems for bankruptcy and district courts are being modified to assist courts in implementing the policy.

Preserving Historical Records
Electronic Records Archives. At the invitation of the Archivist of the United States, the Judiciary's chief technology officer has joined 18 federal and state members of the National Archives and Records Administration's (NARA) Advisory Committee on the Electronic Records Archives (ERA). The goal of the ERA initiative is to establish a comprehensive system for storing, preserving, and accessing any kind of electronic record, independent of any specific hardware or software. The Advisory Committee is particularly interested in ensuring that any investment made in federal electronic archiving needs will also benefit state agencies and private sector entities.

Archival Version of the Portable Document Format. The AO has been actively involved in the International Standards Organization working group made up of industry and federal representatives, and charged with developing the technical standard for an archival version of the Portable Document Format (PDF/A). PDF/A is a non-proprietary electronic file format intended for the long-term preservation of electronic documents, based on the PDF standard currently used for all electronic filings captured in CM/ECF. The AO has taken a leadership role in creating and developing this standard with the hope that it will be the long-term preservation method for the CM/ECF filing system.