Author Archive

Edward Gallas died peacefully on Saturday, Aug. 14, 2010. He was attended by his wife, Nesta, and his two daughters Karen and Stephanie Gallas.

Edward was born on Oct. 30, 1917, in Los Angeles, Calif. He was the son of Joseph Gallas and Catherine Lehner. Edward attended Cathedral High School in Los Angeles where he was an excellent baseball player.

Upon graduating, he was offered a major-league baseball contract with the St. Louis Cardinals, but instead decided to attend college. He enrolled in Loyola University and graduated in 1937. In 1943 he married the love of his life, Nesta Mabyn Williams. They worked for over 50 years in the field of public administration.

Edward was a Navy logistics officer stationed in Hawaii during World War II. Following the end of the war, he returned to California where he worked for the League of California Cities. He later returned to Hawaii, where he started a family and worked as a management consultant to the emerging nations in the South Pacific.

In 1959, Edward and Nesta moved the family back to California where Edward became the first professional court administrator for the Los Angeles Superior Courts. He would later co-author with Nesta and Ernest Friesen “Managing the Courts,” the first book written on court administration. In 1967 he was appointed director of personnel for the New York and New Jersey Port Authority and remained there until his retirement in 1978.

Following his retirement, Edward and his Nesta worked as consultants for the United Nations, the World Bank and the federal government. He provided consulting assistance to the governments of Jamaica, China, Thailand, Laos and Moldova. He was also active in the American Society for Public Administration and was elected to the National Academy of Public Administration in 1975.

Edward loved to travel and worked in, or visited, over 60 countries during his lifetime. He also loved good wine, fine dining, gardening and the company of his friends and family. He will be dearly missed.

He is survived by Nesta Gallas, his wife of 66 years, and four children, Geoffrey Gallas of Philadelphia, Pa., William “Boo” Gallas and wife Diane of Manhattan Beach, Calif., Karen Gallas and husband Dave Edwards of Peacham, Vt., and Stephanie Gallas of Vergennes, Vt.; as well as 11 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Our hearts go out to Geoff Gallas and his mother, Nesta, for the loss of Edward, a giant in our field of judicial administration.

Photo credit = Microsoft clip art

I live in rural Humboldt County on the California coast near the Oregon border. Every year, my wife and I spend 10 days or so attending the county fair here, which is one of the last truly rural fairs in the state. Our biggest lure? The horse racing, of course!!

The local economy is still dominated by timber, fishing, ranching and dairy, which means that the natives are serious about their rural culture. In fact, livestock is a way of life here, not just a photo opportunity

So if you don’t hear any court related stories from me for a week or so, it’s because I’ll be at the finish line cheering for my horse picks. Hope springs eternal, but I also know that they don’t call it the sport of kings for nothing !!

Chris Crawford

www.justiceserved.com

Photo credit = Humboldt County Fair

The Center for Public Policy Studies has been involved in several interesting court-related projects over the years, but their latest initiative to examine the impacts of immigration on our state courts is a whopper. It began two years ago and is far from over, but the scope and breadth of the issue are staggering. To quote CPPS, state courts across the nation face unprecedented challenges resulting from the size and diversity of expanding immigrant populations, as well as the complexity of the nexus of federal state, and local immigration law, policy, and practice.

I highly commend to you their update that appeared in the Spring 2009 edition of the National Association for Court Management’s (www.nacmnet.org) Court Manager magazine (issue 24-1). The link in the first paragraph of this posting will lead to a pdf version of that article.

Meanwhile, I can do no better than quote from the CPPS summary of this far reaching initiative:

INITIATIVE BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Initiated in May 2008, the multi-year Immigration and the State Courts Initiative is being conducted by the Center for Public Policy Saidies (CPPS) in partnership with the State Justice Institute (SJI). The Immigration and the State Courts Initiative is focused on four strategic priorities:

• Increasing understanding and awareness about the impacts of immigration in the state courts;
• Developing and testing state and local approaches for assessing and addressing the impact of immigration in the state courts;
• Enhancing state and local court capacity to improve court services affected by immigration; and
• Building effective national, state, and local partnerships for addressing the impact of immigration in the state courts.

SERVICE ACTIVITIES

Six types of activities have been undertaken to address these four strategic priorities. First, we are identifying the major challenges and opportunities state courts need to address when dealing with immigrants in the courts and establishing a web-based resource network. We are interested particularly in the impacts of immigration on caseloads, court-room and court operations, resources, service delivery and overall performance.

Second, we are working with nine diverse court jurisdictions to learn firsthand what challenges they face in addressing the needs of immigrant populations that use the courts and how to best address those challenges.

Third, we have prepared an electronic, interactive bench guide for assisting judges across the nation address the practical implications of state court criminal case processing involving immigrants, and a second bench guide addressing the nexus of federal immigration status and family, juvenile, and dependency case processing.

Fourth, we are preparing and periodically updating an interactive electronic Guidebook for Addressing the Impacts of Immigration in the State Courts that can be used in courts across the nation. The contents of the Guidebook are structured around a detailed description of a step-by-step assessment and improvement process accompanied by a series of tools and resources, such as answers to frequently asked questions, summaries of lessons learned, session worksheets and extensive web-links to statutes, census data and numerous other types of information about immigration topics.

Fifth, we are developing and conducting courses for judges and court personnel for addressing the impacts of immigration in the state courts and establishing and coordinating a nation-wide training network.

Sixth, we are helping to establish and facilitate an on-going federal / state dialog to promote better collaboration between federal and state courts and justice organizations when addressing immigration issues that impact the state courts. This includes preparing a detailed assessment of the potential implications for the state courts of federal immigration reform.

For more information on the immigration and the state courts initiative, contact John Martin at: jamartin@indra.com or 303-449-0125

Chris Crawford

www.justiceserved.com

Photo credit = The Library of Congress

OK, I admit to being a wimp. I used to be able to travel even back-to-back assignments and still multi-task with no problem. This is a weak excuse for not posting to this blog for two weeks, but as the Anthony Hopkins character said in Howard’s End, “One doesn’t like it, but there it is.”

The NACM conference the week of July 19 was action packed and memorable. A series of meetings, ad hoc business opportunities, education classes, vendor floor shows and the city of New Orleans distractions combined to make an action packed week. A week at home catching up with project work was followed closely by 3-days on site with a contract engagement in Illinois.

Yes, they are excuses, but damned good ones … although the latest project work is very satisfying and working out to the mutual benefit of client and contractor, it nonetheless takes a lot out of you. I very much enjoy the interaction and positive collaboration, but the travel and brain drain are a formidable combination, especially when combined with a major conference.

Here’s the takeaway … the transformational nature of the current financial meltdown is real and palpable. Court professionals everywhere are adjusting to the new reality.

Few of us have the luxury of stopping the music long enough to react to the outside influences in our lives. We deal with a seemingly unending series of crises, and do our utmost to give each one our full attention.

Lest you think I am embarking on another slack-fest, I am warning that the Humboldt County Fair starts 8/12 and I have box seats at the horse races until 8/22. You are liable to have long delays between email and phone responses during this period and I readily admit that the cause will be slackiosity and not fatigue. Well maybe fatigue, but not the work kind.

Serenity now !!

Chris Crawford

www.justiceserved.com

Photo credit = Duke Travel resources

The National Association for Court Management 2010 Annual Conference is in New Orleans next week and I’m excited about the program and activities I have planned there. The conference theme is Wisdom in Action: Proven Court Practices and the week is jam packed with terrific content.

Let’s start with the governance issues with a NACM Board Meeting on July 19 and joint FACT Steering Committee and Joint Technology Committee meeting on July 20. There are a load of administrative issues that deserve attention and it’s a pleasure to be part of the policy solutions. Follow that with education events interspersed throughout the week, an ICM Fellows’ reception* on July 21, vendor show on July 22 and hosting duties for one of the education sessions. Cap off the week with me serving as faculty for a Best of Court Websites course that is repeated on July 23.

*Last year I was honored to be feted with the ICM Fellow STAR Award at a reception held in Boston at the 2009 NACM Annual Conference, so I plan to be front and center when this year’s recipient is named.

In between there is a lot of catching up, social events, business networking and marketing opportunities. I also plan to enjoy the wonderful city, its food and entertainment.

I admit that I’m not looking forward to the July heat and humidity in New Orleans, but I am looking forward to showing my support for the Gulf Coast in what seems to be a series of unfortunate setbacks that should in no way reflect poorly on the spirit and perspicacity of the local denizens.

Oh yeah, and in case you are tracking this blog so you know when to burglarize my house, I left a huge, hungry dog inside so back off !! Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez … Let the Good Times Roll !!

Chris Crawford

www.justiceserved.com

Photo credit = Tales from an Open Book blog

I admit to proselytizing for improved project management skills among court managers as one of the key survival skills of our time. With the financial crisis driving transformational process re-engineering in courts, it is becoming even more apparent that PM is the latest core competency that will ensure we make it through to the other end of this ordeal. So here is my primer on the subject in the form of Frequently Asked Questions:

WHAT IS A PROJECT?  - A project has a beginning and an end. It has deliverables and goals, and creates something that didn’t previously exist. It is not ongoing operations or maintenance. A project requires the direction of resources over a period of time to create a product or program, the quality of which will be determined by the amount of resources, amount of available time and how well the process is managed.

WHAT IS A PROJECT MANAGER? - The individual or groups of individuals that manage the deployment of resources and manage the time constraints to accomplish a project are project managers.

WHAT IS THE “TRIPLE CONSTRAINT?  - A project is affected by the amount of available resources and available time, and the quality of the output is affected accordingly. This concept is called the “triple constraint” and is depicted in the following graphic:

WHAT ARE THE REASONS FOR PROJECT FAILURE?  - The updated 2001 list of reasons why projects fail from the Standish Group study is ranked in the far left column, along with a survey of members of the National Association for Court Management, also conducted in 2001:

Standish Group 2001 Rank	NACM 2001 Rank	Reasons for project failure
1	2	Lack of executive support
2	10	Lack of user involvement
3	1	Inexperienced project manager or management
4	7	Unclear business objectives
5	6	Too complex scope of project
6	4	Lack of standard software infrastructure
7	5	Lack of firm basic requirements
8	9	Lack of formal methodology
9	3	Lack of reliable estimates
10	7	Other criteria

THE BOTTOM LINE

It is clear that the need for solid project management skills is of significant importance when it comes to the likelihood of project success. This was ranked #1 as the reason for project failure by the court management profession, and #3 by the Standish Group for projects in every other industry.

The above list of reasons for project failure also serves as a positive roadmap to show what is needed to improve the odds of success:

√ Make sure that management and court leadership support the project.

√ Make sure to involve the end users in your project development and execution.

√ Be clear about your objectives and take the time to develop a comprehensive scope of work.

√ For IT projects, make sure to have the right infrastructure in place, adequate user requirements, formal methodologies and accurate estimates.

… and for every project, make sure you apply solid project management skills

Chris Crawford

www.justiceserved.com

Title graphic credit = Microsoft clip art

Triple Constraint graphic credit = Projections Consulting

The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) released the 2010 edition of their popular Future Trends in State Courts publication and the content this year is bold. It focuses on public education about courts as an institution and the current transformation taking place as a result of the financial crisis.

Coincidentally, the National Association for Court Management’s Court Express e-publication for Spring 2010 headlined The New Reality for Court Managers, which mirrors many of the process reengineering themes in the Trends report. These include:

1. The financial crisis will be deeper and more prolonged than most expect.
2. While past budget savings focused on cuts and revenue, future savings will likely focus more on process reengineering and/or substantial technology development.
3. Reengineering must focus on core values and purposes of courts.
4. Relations between the courts and other branches of government will continue to be altered by the financial realities.
5. (Direct quote): The idea that the court will be in a much better place when things “get back to where they used to be” is a misconception that needs to be addressed by court leadership. Accepting the notion that we are not likely to return to the circumstances of the past is very important if we are to solve our current problems.

I am still reading the Trends report, so I cannot offer an in-depth analysis as yet, but it is clear that NCSC has been in front of the financial crisis and much of this work includes reengineering efforts in a number of court jurisdictions as part of their technical assistance to states weathering the financial storms.

As a Phoenix rose from the ashes in Greek mythology, courts, too, will rise from the current financial crisis as a new and vibrant 3rd branch of government. To do so, it will take leadership, focus, hewing to core values and the courage to make the right changes.

Easy? No! Necessary? Absolutely!

Chris Crawford

www.justiceserved.com

Photo credit = Cracker Jack Phoenix League

We’ve known for a long time that computer hard drives hold a treasure trove of information and need to be scrubbed clean before recycling or donation lest they divulge valuable information to the wrong people. With the omnipresence of “smart” devices nowadays, this exposure also applies to cell phones, answering machines and even copy machines.

An April 15, 2010 segment of the CBS Evening News featured “Digital Photocopiers Loaded With Secrets,” exposing scary scenarios about tons of information available for the picking in used copy machine warehouses. As the story notes, nearly every digital copier built since 2002 contains a hard drive - like the one on your personal computer - storing an image of every document copied, scanned, or emailed by the machine. YIKES !!

Can you imagine the range of information these hard drives hold? Personally, I also use mine as a heavy duty printer, which means that every file I printed off my computer is also captured in the bowels of the beast. DOUBLE YIKES !!

My God, think of all those hormone-crazed office workers who at one time or another dropped their trousers and photocopied their rear ends. Oh, the humanity !!

So what can be done? For starters, these manufacturers should do a better job of advising purchasers of the risks and take the next step of offering remedies. Sharp offers such a package for what may seem like a steep price of $500, but when one considers the cost of identity theft and liability it no longer seems so high. There are other commercial packages and services on the market that offer preventative solutions and pre-disposal disk scrubbing

You can watch the 5 minute CBS Evening News on their website, or on YouTube.

It’s shocking, but worth the time if it shocks you into taking remedial action when the time comes to dump your current copier.

Life is indeed becoming more complicated.

Chris Crawford

www.justiceserved.com

Photo credit = Tutoorials.com

On this the first day of summer, what better time to celebrate our freedom and our yearning for vacation to get away from it all? What’s keeping us? Our Crackberries, of course! Those little balls-and-chains that tether us to work, email, text messages, reminders and to-do lists. As court managers, we never seem to escape, but thank goodness that judges haven’t fallen prey to this madness … or have they?

According to the distinguished Herbert B. Dixon Jr., judge of the District of Columbia Superior Court, judges are indeed Blackberry power users as covered in his excellent piece entitled Developing an Addiction to Your BlackBerry in 13 Easy Steps published in the American Bar Association The Judges’ Journal, Volume 49, Number 2, Spring 2010.

But does the good judge advise restraint? Does he caution against the temptation to stay connected and extol the virtues of living a balanced life of work and play? Hell no … he trots out a series of power user tips that will turn our species into giant thumbed creatures who sleep at our desks.

I have opined early and often warning of this ailment. Despite my own best efforts to avoid it, I turned on the email feature on my Crackberry and now have to struggle to keep from regularly checking the status of incoming messages. I have even succumbed to the dreaded texting monster, though I keep a rubber band around my wrist and snap it every time I send a message, just to keep from overusing it.

What I haven’t been able to do is completely unplug. I can’t seem to go on vacation or even enjoy a weekend or holiday without that blasted gizmo implanted in my hip.

So save yourselves … it’s too late for me. Eschew the beast, live a more simple life. At least then you’ll have the luxury of assimilating information before responding. Of deciding whether to call someone back after a relaxing day with your family.

You’ll be glad you did.

Chris Crawford

www.justiceserved.com

Photo credit = Associated Press photo by Richard Drew in a San Francisco Chronicle article on a Blackberry legal ruling

OK, I admit it. I am a dyed-in-the-wool Mac-head who started with a Mac SE/30 (at court, no less) and tried my level best to live peaceably in a Windows-dominated work world. In 1998, I was forced to pull the plug on Apple computing and fell asleep next to the Microsoft pod in order to be effective in managing and consulting in court technology. Just when I am officially over the break-up, along comes the iPad. GAD !!

I looked, I touched and I played around with it … this can be nearly fatal in the Mac world because this technology is soooo freaking cool. Then I remembered why we broke up. The costs were too high compared to the competition, the choices of software were extremely limited, files tended to be proprietary rendering sharing almost impossible, collaborating with non-Mac colleagues became a nightmare, and if you got stuck somewhere remote (especially internationally) you were screwed.

The single biggest reason I decided not to take the plunge again is the lack of versatility in this particular tool. It became clear that I couldn’t leave my laptop behind if I needed to actually compute or make a Powerpoint presentation, so what’s the point of carrying two or more tech devices around with you? That’s why I dumped my MP3 player after I picked up a Crackberry, which also enabled me to drop a separate PDA.

So here’s the question … is there a legitimate role for the ultra-cool iPad in the court technology world? I posted this inquiry on the LinkedIn FACT forum and David Slayton, the ubiquitous court administrator from Lubbock posted a similar inquiry on the Court2Court listserv. Here is an excerpted summary of the replies:

From OREGON: As an administrator I have been using a Fujitsu Lifebook for the last three years and along with One Note can be a great organizational tool to almost rid yourself of legal pads. Standard tablets are definitely a production/working tool and Lenovo is coming out with one that will allow you to detach the screen to make it iPad like. However, I’d be wary of the iPad at this point as a production tool. I think the learning curve to make it work properly could be an issue.

From FLORIDA: We’re looking at the possibility of iPads or other netbooks, notebooks, and tablet PC’S as one element of a three-pronged project to improve the judiciary’s ability to perform work with electronic records in chambers, courtroom and from home. The current focus is on how to make the case file images easily available, how to “group” commonly used images in each case for easier access, and allowing multiple documents in singles cases as well as multiple documents in multiple cases to be open at once.  The challenge that has been issued is to make the electronic files as easy to use as paper, if not easier.  We are experimenting with touch screens for use in chambers and courtrooms, and the iPads would be used for travel and home use if a home desktop PC is not desired by the judge.  The project is in its infancy and no actual demonstration of iPad use has been accomplished yet.

From CANADA (1): While I generally support the use of most technology in a courtroom or by judges generally, I must say I am not a fan of iPads. Tablets have existed for years and I militated for their adoption by judges. However, I can’t be supportive of a tablet with no power nor USB connection. Notwithstanding its low price the iPad will only add to the armada of poorly integrated technologies the judiciary needs to deal with. Judges will still need a computer, a cellphone, etc. I think real tablet PCs are still the way to go, no matter the hype around Apple’s new toy.

From Canada (2): The value will only be if applications utilized in the eTrials are able to run on the technologies.  Many of the Judges I work with are still coming to terms with technologies generally.  There is still a limited understanding of the difference between true electronic courtbooks and those simply mirroring a case management solution through simple VGA technologies with limited workflow, in saying this it does work it is just more costly and less efficient, particularly when it comes to true court management ie exhibit management and integration.

From CALIFORNIA: I am told that legal services and self-help staff in California are very pleased with iPads, using them for real time legal research and for searching websites for information and forms.  I would think that judges would find them equally useful for legal research.  Do your judges, however, need to have portable access to legal research or are they always going to be in their offices or on the bench when they are querying a legal information site?  If they are at home preparing for calendars, they would probably find it very handy to have instantaneous access using an iPad.

From SOUTH DAKOTA: We had an iPad problem arise here just last week.  It’s our standard practice to collect jurors’ cell phones when they go into deliberations.  A bailiff guards the pile of phones on a table outside the deliberation room door. We also place trial exhibits on the table in the deliberation room for the jurors.  A police video DVD had been entered into evidence in a trial last week.  At one point the jury wanted to (re)view the video. Normally a bailiff would get a DVD player on a rolling cart for them, but instead a juror just pulled an iPad from her large purse and they played it for themselves.  Not a big deal in itself, we would have displayed it for them anyway, but that iPad could have easily accessed the open, public WiFi signal we have in the courthouse (or the WiFi signal from the big hotel across the street for that matter).  Luckily the jury did no “surfing” and the trial was not disturbed in any away, but now we’re having a discussion here about whether to collect “any internet-accessible device” along with the cell phones from the jurors, or maybe address this with a standard jury instruction as a number of courts already do, or both.

From OHIO: We’re considering the viewing of case filing images assembled into eBooks, and iPad is a possibility for this.

So there you have it … we report and you decide !!

Chris Crawford

www.justiceserved.com

Photo credit = Apple iPad gallery