As the federal judiciary began the requirements-gathering phase for the Next Generation successor of its Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) system back in 2009, it decided to hear voices from outside the court system.
The Next Gen project included an Additional Stakeholders Functional Requirements Group (ASFRG) that focused on how the federal courts interact with others in the legal system. The group’s 24 members included representatives from the judiciary, the Department of Justice, the American Bar Association, the Internal Revenue Service, the Association of American Law Schools, and the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees.
Under the leadership of Judge J. Rich Leonard of the North Carolina Eastern Bankruptcy Court, the group reached out to 63 stakeholder groups in a variety of ways. Most of the external users’ feedback focused on the same core requirements sought in Next Gen. They include single sign-on, enhanced search capabilities, batch-filing features, and customizable reports.
Nearly 500 of the ASFRG’s requirements have been adopted and incorporated into the functional requirements documents being used to design the Next Gen of the CM/ECF system. The requirements-gathering phase has ended, and the judiciary is prioritizing them and developing a schedule for delivery of the new system.
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