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State of the Judiciary: Much Patience Needed in 2011 - Features/Substantive Law - The H... Page 2 of 5 15 Project. The pilot is starting with six law firms, and will include case documents such as pleadings, service records, court notices, orders and judgments, and service/collection of any required filing fees. During the pilot stage, e -filing will be limited to test cases, but we anticipate that it will be mandatory for all civil cases sometime in the future. The pilot does not presently include existing civil cases, probate, mental health, conciliation, housing, or family court cases. We intend to phase in e -filing for all other case types and all parties soon. The project began with a dedicated work group who studied seven e -filing providers, including each system's potential compatibility with the Minnesota Court Information System (MNCIS), the court case management system. Tyler Technologies was selected as the vendor to assist with our electronic filing initiative. The work group also solicited participation from a variety of law firms to help us develop a best -process model for the rest of the state. Judges Robert Blaeser and Pete Cahill addressed the HCBA last March 8 and shared information regarding our proposed initiative, gained buy -in, and sought firms interested in participating in the pilot. Six firms that accepted the challenge include Bassford Remele; Rausch, Sturm, Israel, Enerson ft Hornik; Dorsey It Whitney; Faegre 8. Benson; Lindquist 8 Vennum; and Maslon, Edelman, Borman Et Brand. The bench greatly appreciates the interest and commitment shown by these justice partners. E -filing will improve efficiency, plus save paper and postage and file storage space. It will be easy to learn for both court staff (takes only 45 minutes) and those who will e -file their pleadings. When the civil e -filing pilot is finished, all the kinks will have been worked out, and you will enjoy the benefits of a state-of-the-art e -filing system that has been developed with the needs of the bar firmly in mind. Soon after e -filing is up and running for new civil cases, we will expand the initiative to our other courts. These additional rollouts will require more patience as we discover the tweaks and adjustments necessary to meet the needs of these diverse courts and justice partners. Our new court calendar display monitor system—similar to airport flight information monitors— is another technological improvement rolled out in late 2010. The display is located on the wall on the Public Service Level, near the C Tower weapons screening entrance. We have 12 monitors that list court hearing locations by each party's last name. If for some reason a case fails to appear on the monitor or a customer is unable to read English, a phone next to the monitors will offer assistance from Violations Bureau staff. Other technological improvements include a kiosk system for determining public defender eligibility. These kiosks should be in place at all Criminal Division locations by late spring 2011. We are currently redesigning our public website, with a view to improving user-friendly access to court information. Also on the horizon are large scale, batch scanning of existing files to facilitate our move to a paperless court; wiring of more courtrooms to expand our digital court record project; and more use of interactive television (ITV). Chief Justice John T. Broderick of New Hampshire recently observed that "innovation is no Longer just a good idea, it is an absolute prerequisite to survival." A growing population of Limited english proficiency (LEP) Minnesota citizens, coupled with difficult economic times, presents challenges. In order to ensure that equal access to justice will continue to be met, Minnesota courts, including the Hennepin County District Court, have developed, trained, and certified a strong base of professional court interpreters. Now that our courts face increasing demands for efficiency and access, we need to rethink our traditional model of court interpreting. Hennepin County District Court has developed and is currently piloting a remote interpretation program. Using state-of-the-art ITV technology, our program allows your court and its partners to improve the availability of certified interpreters throughout the metropolitan area, along with greater Minnesota, while reducing costs to taxpayers, scheduling delays, and travel time. In order to identify optimal best practices, our implementation team carefully studied other state and federal systems that currently rely on remote interpreters. Re-engineering the way our courts provide interpretation services follows the national push for increased efficiency while meeting head-on the reality of limited resources, all without sacrificing quality. In late October we went live with our first cross -district remote interpretation using a Hennepin interpreter to help out in Carver County. It was a big success as noted in the following report from Carver County: Today we had our first remote interpreting session for two bail hearings with Sebastian Mesa as the interpreter. Sebastian Mesa is a Minnesota state certified, Hennepin County staff interpreter. Judge Eide was at the helm of this very successful first remote interpreting http://hetinepiii.tinlberlakeptiblisliing.com/article.asp?articte-1495&paper=l&cat=147 2/16/2011