Judges Outline Accelerated Modernization of Case Management System

As government and private sector IT systems come under increasing attack by sophisticated cyber criminals, two federal judges outlined a plan before the Judicial Conference of the United States to accelerate the Judiciary’s development of a new more secure case management system.

Addressing the Conference on Tuesday, Appellate Judge Michael Y. Scudder, who chairs the Conference’s Information Technology Committee, and District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove, chairman of the Committee on Court Administration and Case Management, said that development of a replacement for the federal Judiciary’s aging system is on a fast track, with initial components being tested this year at six courts around the country. 

“This project is a top priority for our branch,” Judge Van Tatenhove said. “It is one we are accelerating to meet our security and operational needs. We must do this given the acute and persistent risk faced by our current CM/ECF system.

The new system will replace the Case Management/Electronic Case Files system (CM/ECF) that the courts have relied on for nearly three decades to manage heavy caseloads and carry out court operations. It is used by litigants to file cases and related documents, and it provides the public with access to over 1 billion court records.

It is anticipated that the district courts will be the first to start implementing aspects of the new case management system within the next year, followed by appellate and bankruptcy courts. The timeline for completion is two to three years sooner than originally expected.

The project is complex on many levels, and its success will depend on the ongoing availability of resources and the navigation of the many technical and operational challenges that accompany the design and implementation of a national case management system, Judge Scudder said.

“Case management modernization is both a top priority for our branch and the most complex and consequential IT project we have ever undertaken,” he said. “We must succeed, and we must do so under substantial time and resource pressures. We can only pull this off together, with shared vision and sound teamwork at every turn.”

In response to growing cybersecurity threats, the new system will incorporate state-of-the-art security features across all courts, with a focus on keeping records safe while improving functionality and reducing costs and risks associated with localized software applications.

The two judges thanked their colleagues for their quick, decisive actions to protect sealed documents from cyber intruders as part of added security measures deployed since August 2025. And, they encouraged their fellow judges to continue to provide the valuable input that has been key to developing the specific features of the new system.    

Human-centered design has been integral to the development phase. Dozens of user representatives drawn from court personnel at all court levels provided crucial input to develop workflows and document the ways digital tools are used to administer justice. 

During the course of 2025, the Judiciary worked to determine the technical feasibility of various components of the system and to help testers visualize how they will be used.  Proposed solutions and approaches were tested and validated in keeping with software development best practices, which mitigate risk by allowing for testing complex requirements before any commitment is made to a particular process or technology. 

Currently, six courts have been identified for testing the initial functional software components. The experience of these pathfinder court users will guide ongoing development and help to shape the Judiciary-wide rollout of these new tools. Improving the search functionality of the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system is a key component of the modernization project.

In a separate development, the Conference on Tuesday also received two new reports required by statute, the Annual Report of the Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO), which reports on the activities of the AO and the Judiciary during the previous year, and Judicial Business, the Judiciary’s comprehensive annual statistical workload report. 

The 26-member Judicial Conference (PDF) is the policy-making body for the federal court system. By statute, the Chief Justice of the United States serves as its presiding officer and its members are the chief judges of the 13 courts of appeals, a district judge from each of the 12 geographic circuits, and the chief judge of the Court of International Trade.