Managing the Courts calendar is never an easy assignment because there are often several competing forces vying for the courts and the judges time. Fortunately, for a number of courts, their IT court professionals understand the need for a scheduling solution that will benefit the court, judges, and the administrative people supporting the Court. Calendaring / scheduling software that is geared specifically to meet the special needs of the court is the solution.
Even courts with a small number of Judges may be hearing hundreds of cases per year. The resultant workload of maintaining the Judges calendars, along with notifying all interested parties of any changes to their calendar can be daunting task for court personnel.
That’s where Judicial scheduling software can offer a convenient and quick solution to effectively maintaining all the courts dates and cases. Once a court has installed a judicial scheduling solution (most are very easy) case information can be pulled automatically from a Case Management System. As new cases and changes are made to the calendar, notification rules can be set up for all interested parties. Finally some scheduling solutions also have features that allow the clerk or responsible party to create and post the courts docket for the public to review.
What was once a daunting task that of changing and notifying interested parties of case/court changes is now a breeze with judicial scheduling solutions. The second most powerful benefit to implementing the correct scheduling solution is the reporting mechanisms. Having a robust reporting and audit tool allows the court to better understand how its resources are being utilized and when the time comes to build a case proper funding, having a solution that can be easily mined for relevant data is imperative.
Here are some important features of the best judicial calendaring systems:
Most fields are user defined and configurable
Overbooking functions
Conflict resolution
Fully Audit Trail
Public and attorney access to calender
Case history reporting
Can be integrated to CMS
Exporting to Word, Excel and PDF
Clearly, Judicial scheduling software helps to save time and increase staff productivity. There are a large number of companies that provide calendaring/scheduling solutions most very inexpensively. However, the judiciary has a number of special requirements for which the vast majority of generic solutions fall far short.
When looking for the right solution do not assume that the solution has to be part of a CMS, as long as the scheduling software can be integrated or information can be passed between the two should meet most courts needs. Ease of use, functions and features set weighed against cost is always a major consideration, fortunately there are a few providers who deliver a powerful scheduling tool as a reasonable price point. As always its advisable that you research the marketplace to find the solution that’s right for your organization.
