Court Operations – Annual Report 2023

Modernizing and Safeguarding the Electronic Case Management System

Throughout 2023, several important steps in the Case Management Modernization (CMM) program were successfully completed. The CMM is a top-to-bottom modernization of the Judiciary’s electronic case management system that will significantly improve the Judiciary’s cybersecurity posture and also benefit litigants and the public who seek to access court records. The first phase is replacing the current version of the search functionality for public users of the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) service. The upgrade will provide unified search functionality, aimed at making records searches easier, more intuitive, and user-friendly. 

During the year, court employees and public users of PACER were involved in all levels of the product development phase, consistent with the Strategic Plan for the Federal Judiciary and the recommendations by 18F, the General Services Administration’s independent technology consultancy. A 12-member public user group appointed by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO) provided detailed feedback about their experiences with the current PACER system and the potential features that would be valuable in a new search system. In this way, public users are helping to define the goals for the new public access system.

The CMM program staff in 2023 began recruiting court employees who use the current case management system to provide feedback and test the new search functions being developed to ensure users’ needs are met. A CMM Board was appointed in 2023 to provide court-based strategic leadership and vision, with court executives and judges from all court types represented. In addition, a market research project effort examining software products in the marketplace was concluded.

In June 2023, the AO announced the procurement of cloud hosting services, consistent with 18F’s recommendation to build the new system in the cloud, which will make the future system more flexible and facilitate more efficient rollout of new features. The new case management system is also being developed consistent with the latest cybersecurity guidelines.

When the system is up and running, it will be possible to search for records across federal court boundaries nationally in near real time. The unified search functionality will eliminate the need for users to search for records at individual courts. It will also enable full-text searches and searches by judges’ names and incorporate “fuzzy” search logic so that misspellings and similar words are discovered — features that PACER users have consistently requested.

Remote Access to Court Proceedings Expanded

The Judicial Conference of the United States in 2023 approved a change to its longstanding broadcast policy that expanded the public’s access to civil and bankruptcy proceedings. The revised policy permits judges presiding over civil and bankruptcy cases to provide the public with live audio access to non-trial proceedings that do not involve witness testimony.

Remote access to proceedings had long been prohibited in federal courts, although the policy was loosened for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, when activity in courthouses was restricted for health and safety reasons. The Judiciary granted temporary permission for remote audio access to civil and bankruptcy proceedings. And the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act authorized the use of video and audio technology and allowed public access for some criminal proceedings. The CARES Act authorization expired on May 10, 2023.

The Conference’s new policy went into effect on Sept. 22, 2023, and affects only civil and bankruptcy proceedings. The Judiciary continues to explore possible ways to further expand remote public access to civil and bankruptcy proceedings involving witness testimony.

Modernizing Data Collection and Usage

A multi-year initiative to modernize the Judiciary’s data collection and usability technology was in full swing in 2023, with the aim of providing better data access options, improved user experience, reductions in development and deployment costs and timelines, and improvements in data quality. The upgrades will support the Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW), which the AO and the courts use to streamline day-to-day operations, gain insight into historical trends, perform budget and workload projections, and make informed decisions. The demand for and use of data and data services are growing in the Judiciary, and the upgrades will help the AO meet the demands.

Web-Based Collection of Receipts

In 2023, the AO completed a national rollout of the Automated Collections Register, a web-based application that replaces older systems and introduces greater efficiencies aimed at supporting financial management controls throughout the collections and receivables process. Courts can quickly generate receipts from various sources, such as walk-in customers, mail-in payments, and wire transfers. It was designed in partnership with several courts with a focus on user experience. Implementation began in 2022 and was completed in 2023 for over 200 court units on schedule and within the budget.

Access to Interpreters

Spanish is the most frequently used language in interpreting proceedings in the courts, comprising 95 percent of all reported interpreting events in fiscal year 2023.Federal courts used interpreters in 148,379 court proceedings in the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2023. Overall, 124 languages were used, and American Sign Language was used in 235 cases. The top 10 languages that required interpreting are listed in the following chart.