Technology Services

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The Electronic Handshake

Kevin Kilpatrick

Are you tired of the same old questions and requests from attorneys and other courthouse visitors? Frustrated by not finding the case file or document you are looking for because someone else checked it out? For most court staff, this is the reality of public service.

There is a solution to these routine requests - Electronic Public Access Systems. Public access terminals with attached printers in the court lobby and other designated areas can provide answers to many walk-in requests, freeing court clerks to answer the more difficult questions.

Public access terminals, however, are only part of the solution. To keep case participants, attorneys, investigators, and the media from driving to the courthouse at all, 51 individual courts and eight state court systems provide remote access to their information systems via PCs and modems.

At connection, a remote user makes an electronic handshake with the court's information system. More specifically, an electronic handshake begins at the precise moment when the sending computer's signal is acknowledged by the receiving computer. Through the electronic handshake, the remote user can access the court information made available by the court. Some courts allow remote users to view the same information that the clerks use everyday - often even in the same format, on the same data entry screens.

The National Center for State Courts, with funding from the State Justice Institute, recently studied the growth of court electronic access systems. The research phase of this project identified courts with remote access capabilities and gathered information concerning system fees, court and user profiles, and overall usage statistics. The final report, due out in June 1994, will include results of the study and a series of recommendations.

The first Electronic Handshake survey, sent out in the March/April 1993 issue of the Court Technology Bulletin, was mailed to over 6,200 subscribers. One hundred and seventy-five courts responded. Ninety-three courts indicated they do not have any type of electronic public access systems, while 83 indicated that they do permit some form of electronic public access to their databases. Within this latter group, 19 make in-courthouse terminals available to noncourt users, while 45 allow remote dial-up access. Only six states offer statewide dial-up access to court information. This does not include those states with a completely separate private sector system such as the Kansas Information Network. [Since the initial survey, a few additional electronic access systems have been identified. -ED]

Many responding courts provide free electronic access to court data. Those that charge for remote access use a variety of methods. The most common charge is a "per minute" usage rate, at $1.00 per minute. Several courts use a one-time or an annual "subscription" fee, ranging from $50.00 to $300.00. Other variations include fees by the CPU minute, transaction, login, month, and/or installation. In all cases where courts charge user fees, the revenue cover, most expenses of providing the service.

As part of the study, researchers surveyed users of remote access systems in Washington State, Maryland, and Dade County, Florida. Many appear to be more sophisticated computer users than previously believed. A majority routinely use on-line services like Lexis/Nexis, Westlaw, and other specialized databases. Interestingly, nearly 55 percent use CompuServe or other similar information resources.

According to the data, investigative companies spend a lot of time accessing court records. The average session is more than 22 minutes, while the average time per week totals over four and a half hours. Law firms spend less time. The average law firm spends less than 17 minutes per session and just under two hours a week accessing court records. Several other respondents indicated usage rates in excess of ten hours per week. Not all subscribers are local. It is not unusual for attorneys in California or Washington to gather data from Dade County, Florida, or Maryland after normal business hours.

Many users cited "availability" as a primary advantage of remote access systems. The ability to dial up any time, day or night and on weekends, is also very important to most user respondents. Criticisms were usually due to technical system limitations.

The study also identified four key federal access services: Appellate Court Electronic Services (ACES); Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER); Bankruptcy Voice CASE Information System; and Electronic Filing (ELF). The U.S. Administrative Office of the Courts estimates there are over 25,000 registered users across the four systems.

For more information or to request a copy of the report, call Kevin Kilpatrick, NCSC Court Technology Programs 800-616-6164.