Free remote Spanish interpretation services, which are provided by licensed court interpreters employed by the state Office of Court of Administration (OCA), are now available for criminal cases involving intimate partner violence handled by district and county-level courts in counties with a population less than 50,000.

Our office received a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) to fund this program, which is known as the Texas Remote Interpreter Project (TRIP). Previously, TRIP services were only available in civil cases involving intimate partner violence.

To access this service, all a court needs is a landline phone with a speaker in the courtroom and the ability to place a telephone call to Austin. Courts with Internet access in the courtroom can use the service through voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) or videoconferencing.

The remote interpretation services are very easy to use. Details about TRIP services and how to access them may be found at:

http://www.courts.state.tx.us/oca/DVRA/trip.asp.

Marco Hanson and Juanita Ulloa, our staff interpreters, are available to assist each judge and court coordinator in learning how to schedule appointments online, and to test and evaluate the court's speakerphone or computer (if the court would like to have the interpretation services provided by videoconferencing or VOIP). Please contact them at (512) 463-5656 or interpreter@txcourts.gov.

The Shared Solutions Summit Toolkit is the product of the first Shared Solutions Summit, convened January 8-10, 2012, and enables all justice system stakeholders to access the information and ideas shared at the summit. Videos, presentations, and project plans are included for five key topic areas: criminal courts, mental health courts, child protection courts, civil courts handling self-represented litigants, and limited jurisdiction courts handling juvenile Class C cases. The toolkit captures the leadership, collaboration, and data analysis techniques discussed at the summit, along with examples of how they can be applied to specific areas in need of improvement.

With the state fiscal year coming to a close this month, efforts will soon begin to prepare the next Annual Report for the Texas Judiciary, which includes a compilation of information collected from the trial courts through the Texas Judicial Council Monthly Court Activity Reports. Judges and clerks are encouraged to review the information that has been submitted to OCA for their county or court to ensure that it is accurate and complete. Information in these reports is used by the executive, legislative and judicial branches at all levels of government in the state to make policy and budgetary decisions, as well as by the media, researchers, members of the public, and many other individuals and entities.

To review the data submitted for your county or court, run a report from our database. Select the court level you are interested in, then select the Activity Detail Report.

NOTE: Reports for district and county courts are available for the county only, not individual courts. Reports for justice and municipal courts are available by court. 

Assistance to County and District Clerks

OCA recently received notification from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice that we have been recommended for second-year grant funding, in the amount of $488,841, to continue the NICS Record Improvement Project. If awarded, grant funding for the second year of the project is scheduled to start on October 1, 2012.

The grant funds will be used to continue the employment of OCA staff who are assisting county and district clerks who have not completed the required reporting of information on mental health, guardianship, and mental retardation cases for the period September 1, 1989 through August 31, 2009, as required by HB 3352.[1] This information is reported into the Texas Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) for use in background checks performed by the FBI to determine whether a person is disqualified from possessing or receiving a firearm.

Since OCA obtained the first-year grant award for the project, 59 clerks have requested assistance and submitted the paperwork required to schedule a site visit. The site visits started on December 16, 2011.

As of August 1, 2012, OCA staff had completed site visits for 25 clerks and reviewed approximately 166,000 case files. Approximately 14,000 cases contained sufficient data to be entered into CJIS. Statewide, active NICS records in CJIS increased by 14 percent (25,590 records), from 177,356 active records on December 1, 2011 to 202,946 on August 1, 2012.

OCA is actively engaged in selecting a new eFiling Vendor. The current vendor (NICUSA) indicated to the Department of Information Resources that they no longer wish to continue under the current terms and conditions of the eFiling agreement. In its RFO, OCA stressed the need for the next eFiling system to have the ability to integrate with the various case management systems across Texas. OCA is working through the procurement process and hopes to announce the new vendor at the end of August. 

The Supreme Court recently upgraded their case management system to the new Texas Appeals Management and Efiling System (TAMES). This system further integrates the court and will allow them to become "paper on demand". For the public, TAMES provides a better search capability into the courts documents, orders and opinions.

The Supreme Court follows the 1st and 14th Courts of Appeals in Houston in adopting the TAMES system. OCA plans to rollout TAMES next in the 5th Court of Appeals (Dallas) in early September, then the 4th, 6th, 9th and 12th Courts of Appeals later this fall. 

As time passes, more of the appellate courts are allowing (and in some cases mandating) electronic filing. The 2nd Court of Appeals joined the ranks of eFiling courts on August 6th. In September, we expect to see the 7th, 12th, and 13th Courts of Appeals allow eFiling. The 9th Court of Appeals will follow in October. 

The Judicial Compensation Commission is in the process of preparing its report to the Texas Legislature recommending the proper salaries to be paid by the state for all justices and judges of the Supreme Court of Texas, the Court of Criminal Appeals, the courts of appeals, and the district courts. The report is due December 1, 2012. The Commission's Public Comments Committee met on June 21, 2012. The Commission's next meeting will be held on September 14 from 10:00 - 12:00 in Austin at the Office of Court Administration. A webcast of the meeting and additional information regarding upcoming meetings and previous Commission reports can be found at:  http://www.courts.state.tx.us/oca/jcc/jcc.asp.

The Office of Court Administration's contract with a third-party vendor to administer the required certification exam on behalf of the Guardianship Certification Board expires on August 31, 2012. Rather than seek a new vendor, the OCA and the GCB plan to have applicants take the exam at University of Texas proctoring centers. An Exam Committee has been appointed and will meet later this month to review the proctoring center requirements and to discuss possible changes to the required exam fee. The full GCB plans to meet in late August or in September to consider the recommendations and will submit any proposed fee changes to the Supreme Court of Texas for its approval. Watch the Important Notices section on the GCB website home page for updates.

August 21, 2012 - Review Panel Committee

September 15, 2012 - Court Reporters Exam (Austin)

October 11, 2012 - CRCB Committees - TBA

October 12, 2012 - Court Reporters Certification Board

The Collections Improvement Program (CIP) Audit Department has begun working on Rate Reviews and Compliance Engagements. Since the audit function was moved to the OCA on September 1, 2011, CIP Audit has completed nine (9) Post-Implementation Rate Reviews. The reviews were performed on the City of Austin, the City of Corpus Christi, the City of El Paso, the City of Pasadena, the City of Waco, Lubbock County, Nacogdoches County, Potter County, and Randall County.

Currently, CIP Audit is conducting two (2) Compliance Engagements on the City of Garland and the City of Plano. In addition, a Post-Implementation Rate Review is being conducted on the City of Houston.

For more information regarding CIP Audit, please refer to our webpage at http://www.courts.state.tx.us/oca/collections/cipaudithome.asp.

Public Access Website

1. Immigration & State Courts Initiative Releases Bench Cards for Criminal, Family, and Juvenile Court Judges
2. Center for Elders & the Courts Re-launches Enhanced Website
3. Navigating the Hazards of E-Discovery, A Manual for Judges in State Courts Across the Nation