Courts prioritize case management upgrades in new budget request
Eric Maclure
Florida’s trial courts are seeking $27.4 million in next year’s budget to launch a major upgrade of case management technology, part of a broader request to continue modernizing the justice system, enhance judicial security, and improve staffing and salaries, State Courts Administrator Eric Maclure told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice on Wednesday.
Maclure said the case management technology upgrades are “the number one priority for the trial courts” this session.
The funding would pay for the first year of a two-year project and includes 47 new FTEs, or full-time equivalent positions, Maclure said.
Nearly all documents in Florida courts are filed electronically and judges rely on case management systems to view pleadings, set hearings, and prepare, draft, and serve orders, among other things, Maclure said.
“The technology is indispensable to case management,” he said.
Traditionally, county governments are responsible for court facilities and the state is responsible for judges, but the dividing line has blurred as technology advances, leading to “inequities” between circuits, Maclure said.
“In the first year, we’re addressing those circuits that have two different case management systems, so that we can get them all on the same system, we’re addressing circuits that cannot yet meet the standards that were established by the Florida Courts Technology Commission, and we’re addressing circuits that use one particular model,” Maclure said.
The model, “ICMS,” or Information Case Management System, serves nine circuits and more than 30 counties. Upgrading it would give taxpayers the biggest return on the investment, Maclure said.
This session, Maclure said the trial courts are also seeking $4.6 million for 48 new case managers, a position that first proved its worth in the 2007 foreclosure crisis.
“We learned from that experience that they can review case files, ensure that the case is ripe and ready for judicial effort and time, they can help in rescheduling hearings, they can be responsive to the attorneys, and they can also keep statistics that help the judges with the appropriate triaging of cases,” he said.
Another significant spending request, nearly $16.2 million, would enhance trial and appellate judge salaries, Maclure said.
State records show that in 2000, salaries for Florida DCA and trial judges were ranked among the top eight states. Since then, Florida’s national judicial salary rankings have fallen to 14th for DCA judges and 25th for circuit court judges.
The investment would ensure “that we can attract the most skilled attorneys to serve on the bench, and be competitive with other states,” Maclure said.
The courts are also asking for $5 million to bring 254 of the courts’ 3,600 positions into “SMS,” or the Senior Management Services retirement system, Maclure said.
“A number of our executive leadership and policy making positions are not accounted for in that current framework,” including the general counsel, inspector general, and chief technology officer, Maclure said.
Florida’s district courts of appeal are requesting $1.6 million to give appellate judges more flexibility to configure “judicial suite staffing,” Maclure said.
The traditional model has one judge, one judicial assistant, and two staff attorneys per judicial suite, Maclure said.
“But over time as people have gotten more technology savvy, and judges and attorneys do more of their own work on the computers, the need in every instance for judicial assistant support has varied,” he said.
Some appellate judges share judicial assistants and hire an additional attorney, sometimes a beginning lawyer who wants to gain experience, Maclure said.
Lawmakers last session approved $2 million to begin building a courthouse in Lakeland for the new Sixth District Court of Appeal, Maclure reminded the committee.
Sites are being identified, and the courts will issue a supplemental budget request in the coming months that will reflect the full cost of building the courthouse, he said. The Supreme Court has yet to certify a need for new judges, and that order will likely be issued in November or December, Maclure said.
Systemwide, the courts are requesting nearly $1 million for “judicial security resources,” in part, to respond to rising threats against judges and court staff, Maclure said.
A Judicial Management Council Workgroup on Judicial Security that Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz formed in March recently visited the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s “Florida Fusion Center,” in Tallahassee, where threats from across the nation and across the state are logged and evaluated, Maclure said.
The workgroup recommended hiring two additional deputy marshals to receive and monitor threats against judges and court staff and to serve as the court system’s liaison to the Florida Fusion Center, Maclure said.
The Fusion Center maintains an “Intelligence Watch and Warning Desk” that is staffed by analysts 24/7. It could forward threats against judges or court staff to one of the Fusion Center’s seven regional “Targeted Violence Prevention,” or TVP teams, which would coordinate with the state courts and local law enforcement to take appropriate action, according to court records.
“Right now, we don’t have a partnership with the Fusion Center, so we’re self-reliant on the reporting of threats,” Maclure said. “It’s challenging when you have a threat in Miami, to know whether there’s been an analogous threat by the same actor in Pensacola, and that’s the advantage that the Fusion Center relationship would have.”
The deputy marshals would also provide judges and court staff with security training, Maclure said.
The $937,740 for enhanced judicial security would also pay to replace outdated security video surveillance equipment for the Supreme Court, and two part-time deputy marshals for the Sixth District Court of Appeal, Maclure said.
Without a permanent courthouse, Sixth DCA judges travel to different facilities throughout the district, which creates additional security risks, Maclure said.
Another state court system request of $171,233 would allow the Judicial Qualifications Commission to hire a new general counsel and help the JQC staff better manage rising caseloads, Maclure said.
The courts are also asking for slightly more than $1 million to replace three balky elevators that serve the historic Supreme Court facility, Maclure said.
The elevators have stranded passengers 20 times in the past three years, records show.
“Two of those elevators date back to 1948, when the Supreme Court was constructed, one dates back to 1990 and has had some refurbishment, but the elevators are suffering from chronic breakdowns,” Maclure said.
