TRIAL COURT’S MASSCOURTS INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
SYSTEM TO BEGIN IN BOSTON MUNICIPAL COURT
Boston--The first installation
of MassCourts, the Trial Court’s comprehensive,
statewide information technology system, will begin in
the Boston Municipal Court Department of the Trial Court
this fall, Chief Justice for Administration and Management
Barbara A. Dortch-Okara announced today at the MassCourts Leadership
Conference in Wellesley. Following implementation in the
Boston Municipal Court, MassCourts will be installed
in the Land Court in January, 2004, in all the courts in
Plymouth County later in the spring, and then in all Trial
Court departments throughout the Commonwealth.
Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice
Margaret H. Marshall said, “MassCourts is designed
to benefit Massachusetts residents by making the delivery
of justice more efficient, timely, accountable and accessible
to all. When the project is finished, the Massachusetts Trial
Court will be a national leader in court information technology.”
The Leadership Conference,
the third in a series, brought together Chief Justices,
court administrators, clerks, probation officers, and other
court representatives to further plans for the implementation
of MassCourts.
“I am pleased to announce the beginning
of the implementation of MassCourts,” Chief Justice
Dortch-Okara said, “and I am grateful to the managers and
staff of the Trial Court Information Technology Project,
Information Technology Department, and all the judges and
employees who have worked extremely hard over the last several
years to bring us to this phase. We have made exceptional
progress.”
MassCourts will fully integrate
case information from all trial courts throughout the Commonwealth
by replacing fifteen existing legacy systems. The project,
funded through a $75 million bond bill authorized by the
Legislature in 1995, is expected to be completed in 2006.
The Boston Municipal Court was
selected as the first Trial Court department to implement MassCourts because
of its size and suitability for the training program that
will accompany installation of the technology. Eventually
4,000 judges and administrative, clerical, and probation
staff throughout the Trial Court will be given at least three
days of training on how to use the system.
“The staff of the Boston
Municipal Court are very adept at using the interim information
technology systems,” said Superior Court Judge Timothy
S. Hillman, the Information Technology Project Executive
who is leading the Project’s team. “MassCourts is
a faster, more robust, and more functional system than
our current legacy systems. It will not only enhance the
processing of all cases in the Trial Court, but it will
also be capable of accommodating growing demands,” he said.
The Internet-based system will
provide the public, attorneys, and members of the court community
greater access to case information, in accordance with the
Supreme Judicial Court’s policy governing court records on
the Internet. Court administrators also will have a powerful
management tool for tracking individual cases as they progress
through the system, and for compiling and analyzing statewide
court data.
Since January, when the Administrative
Office of the Trial Court selected Maximus Justice Solutions
of Canton, Ohio, to provide the MassCourts software,
Trial Court judges and staff have been working closely with
company representatives to finalize the system’s approximately
1,800 functional requirements. The IT Project is currently
bringing together Trial Court user groups and Maximus personnel
to design the hundreds of on-line forms necessary to capture
case information for every case filed in the Trial Court.
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