Recently, I attended the ninth annual Court Technology Conference (CTC9) in Seattle on September 12-16. The event is the only conference dedicated exclusively to court technology. The conference was presented by the National Center for the State Courts (NCSC). The event is dedicated to a wide range of issue and topics from future technology, court operations, and innovative products and solutions that court have used to enhance the service to their constituents. Judges, court administrators, technologists, court clerks and their IT staff typically attend the event. It is worth noting that at least three members of NAPPS that I know of aside from myself of course attended at the conference. They were Robert DeFilippis of OneLegal, Keith Mc Masters of Excel Investigations, and Dr. Mohammed Shaikh of E-Filing.com.
My purpose for attending was to try to continue to keep abreast of court technology developments, visit with leading court technology vendors, and networking. Through the course of the conference, I had an opportunity to attend several programs and even participate in a presentation that I will touch on later in this report.
One of the things that made an impression upon me was the presence of Lexis/Nexis at the conference. For the benefit of those of you who may not be aware, Lexis is the largest vendor in North America (if not the world) of E-Filing solutions for the courts. I was told that Lexis had fifty plus representatives at the conference. During the course of the conference, Lexis held several presentations geared to reinforce their message, goals and image. I had the opportunity to sit in on a few of their presentations
and I was once again fascinated by their message. Their message was simple, really. It went something like this: … We are Lexis and we know what you want and need, and we are the only vendor that can deliver those things. Everything else you see and hear at this conference from other vendors is either unproven or in its infancy stage... Of course, that is not exactly what they said or how they said it, but it is what I heard. As I was reflecting on the presentation, I recalled I had heard something similar in a movie when I was a child. The movie was the Wizard of Oz and the message went some thing like "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain". Do not get me wrong, clearly Lexis did not get where they are today by accident, their E-Filing solution works in many jurisdictions around the country.
The reason I am sharing this impression is to make a point, which is there are many companies like Lexis/Nexis that are looking to capitalize and revolutionize the business of the courts and potentially service of process. If we stand by, simply watch, and listen, our businesses will cease to exist, as we know them. The only way I know to combat the message being delivered by multi-billion dollar companies like Lexis, is for our industry to continue to embrace technology, embrace change and deliver our own message to the legal and court communities. I believe that NAPPS has committed a large part of its agenda to efforts relating to E-Service and E-Filing and will continue to inform and empower its members to insure that they remain relevant.
As mentioned earlier in this report, I also had an opportunity to introduce what CAPPS is doing in California at CTC9. Maybe it is best to provide some background first. In December last year, CAPPS embarked on a concept to partner the association with a technology company that was offering E-Filing. The concept was simple; the association would capitalize on its strengths through its members and their relationships with their clients and the courts in an effort to establish a partnership with an E-Filing provider. Long story short, CAPPS has formalized an agreement/partnership with two technology companies LawDex & nSite just prior to the CTC9 conference.
Back to my report, at CTC9 Scott Stanley who is the CEO of LawDex and I gave a presentation. Our purpose was to offer a message that differed from what the other vendors were delivering. Our message was that the process serving industry in California is uniquely qualified and understands the challenges facing the courts and the legal community. We explained that there is a gap physically, technologically and culturally between the courts and the lawyers. Scott and I made a case for why the court filing and process serving industry can play a very critical role in bridging those gaps. We explained that our members have long-standing relationships with the majority of law firms in the California and handle the filing of the majority of documents in the state, which represents several million documents annually. We also emphasized our relationship with the courts, and how the courts routinely rely upon our members to present them with filings that are free of defects and errors. We also demonstrated that we could play a critical role in training and educating the lawyers and their staffs. Unfortunately, we did not have a large audience but we will continue to deliver our message to anyone that will listen.
The LawDex/nSite/CAPPS partnership was officially presented to the members at the annual conference in early October. Members present embraced the presentation. The program is well on it way to getting over its first hurdle. By the time, you read this report the LawDex/nSite/CAPPS partnership will likely have become officially certified by the County of Sacramento. That certification will allow CAPPS members to offer E-Filing to their clients in Unlawful Detainer actions.
Ultimately, it is my hope that the CAPPS relationship with LawDex and nSite will prove to be successful and that it will be used as a model for establishing similar programs with NAPPS and/or other state associations.
