Tuesday 23 February 2010

Court Costs and Electronic Discovery

The electronic transition continues. On February 1, 2010 Austin, Texas attorney Craig Ball published an interested article titled - Are We Just Makin' Copies? in Law Technology News.  In the article he argues that the Federal Court Rules of Civil Procedure must be updated to recognize new realities and to create a consistent approach to court cost recovery.

Monday 8 February 2010

Florida State Courts Administrator Issues RFP for Governance Study

The Florida Office of State Courts Administrator, Strategic Planning Unity has recently issued a Request for Proposals for a Judicial Branch Governance Study.  The RFP is in concert with Florida Supreme Court Administrative Order AOSC09-43 issued in October, 2009 that:

Directs the Judicial Branch Governance Study Group to undertake an in-depth study of the current governance system of the judicial branch of Florida.  The study group is directed to submit a final report and recommendations to the court no later than December 31, 2010.

The order further directs that the report shall contain:

1  An examination of the structure and functions of the present governance system of the Florida judicial branch and an assessment of its efficacy and efficiency;
2  Recommendations of actions or activities that the study group concludes would advance improvement in the governance of the judicial branch; and,
3  Recommendations of any changes to the present governance system that the study group concludes would
improve the effective and efficient management of the Florida judicial branch.

A copy of the RFP in PDF form can be downloaded from:
http://www.flcourts.org/gen_public/purchasing/bin/RFP-10-001-BF.pdf

Thursday 4 February 2010

US Federal Courts Provide Guidance on Juror Smart Phone Use

On January 24th, the US Federal Courts Judicial Comittee on Court Administration and Case Management for the US District Courts issued instructions to be provided to jurors regarding the use of cell phones and computers during their service. 
A Network World article posted on February 2, 2010 titled - Courts move to ban juror use of Blackberry, iPhone, Twitter and Facebook provides a summary of this action. 
The court instructions can be downloaded in PDF at: http://www.uscourts.gov/newsroom/2010/DIR10-018.pdf