THE RECENT PURCHASE of a $1.9 million case management system moves the state courts one step closer to 21st century handling of case files and communications.

Using special funds appropriated by the legislature in 2001 for technology upgrades, the court has signed a contract with Tyler Technologies, of Plano, Texas, to provide the state’s trial courts with a case management system that for the first time will allow judges and staff to share information and documents electronically among the 65 trial courts in 43 locations around the state.

"This is a giant step forward in our effort to modernize our court system so that we can provide the most efficient services to New Hampshire citizens," said Senior Associate Justice John T. Broderick, Jr.

At a reception in Keene on May 5 hosted by the Cheshire County Bar Association, Associate Justice Linda S. Dalianis, a member of the court-appointed Task Force on Justice System Needs and Priorities, said the software will provide a platform that ultimately will allow the court to send out court notices electronically, provide litigants with information on pending cases via the Internet, and —in a few years — electronic filing. "This system will give us whatever we need to ultimately do all of those things electronically," said Dalianis, who also cautioned that implementation of the software will take time as it will require much training, reorganization of administrative processes, new policies, and greater uniformity in procedures among various courts.

"Deployment of the case management system will begin with the Concord District Court, starting this summer," Dalianis added. "Then those processes will be cloned to other district court locations, and then we will move to implement it in the superior court."

Justice James E. Duggan, also at the Keene meeting, said that computer terminals that will provide access to state government sites on the Internet would be installed in public areas of courthouses at the same time. Initially, these public access terminals —a recommendation of the court’s Pro Se Task Force, which Duggan chaired — will only provide access to general information and not to specific case information. The Pro Se Task Force had recommended using computer technology to provide better guidance to self-represented litigants on court procedures. Before access to case information can be provided, however, policies are needed to govern Internet access to case information. An advisory committee has been appointed by the court to review the issue.

Adapting to electronic processing involves much more than installing software, Dalianis cautioned. "We will have to reengineer the way we do business to make sense in a digital world."

Court notices via email will be the first benefit the public and the Bar will see, the justice said. Not only will this speed distribution of court orders and notices of hearings, it will also save on postage and spare court staff the time-consuming tasks of print ing out documents, folding paper and mailing out envelopes. However, Dalianis warned, there’s no way in the short run to eliminate paper entirely from court processes.

Dalianis said the court will be monitoring the rollout of electronic filing in the federal court (see accompanying article) to avoid mistakes.

The court has purchased Tyler’s "Odyssey Case Manager," a state-of-the-art Web-based information storage and retrieval system that will replace the court system’s long-outdated, DOS-based, information storage system in use since the late 1980s. Court administrators expect the full installation of the case management system in the Superior, District and Probate Courts will take at least two years. The Supreme Court installed a separate appellate case management system in 2002. The court’s information technology manager, Thomas Edwards, will supervise the project.

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