Whether or not you are aware, artificial intelligence (AI) already has a place in our daily lives. From Amazon to Alexa, sophisticated algorithms affect our everyday actions. The next ten years will see advancements in electronic decision-making, facial recognition, language translation, and voice-to-text. Will the benefits be worth the cost in the loss of privacy due to AI’s insatiable thirst for data? What will be the new careers to look for in AI world? Abhijeet Chavan and IV Ashton walk us through some of the inner workings of AI, some expectations in areas like Natural Language Processing, and give advice on how to prepare for the future of this technology. 

This is a fascinating episode for listeners interested in court technology, Natural Language Processing, algorithms, individual privacy, language translation, and emerging technologies.

There is a link to a short segment of the book Prediction Machines by Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, Avi Goldfarb, in the Show Notes section on our website.

Leave a comment or question about the podcast at [email protected]. 

About the Speakers

Abhijeet Chavan Consulting Manager, Tyler Technologies

Abhijeet Chavan has over 20 years of technology consulting experience with public sector, higher education, and non-profit clients. Mr. Chavan was named to the Fastcase 50 list of global legal innovators in 2017. He regularly presents at conferences on access to justice and artificial intelligence.  Mr. Chavan sits on committees of the State Bar of California, American Bar Association, and National Association for Court Management. He is a co-author of NACM's 2019 Plain Language Guide. Previously, Mr. Chavan served as chief technology officer of a consulting firm; created legal tools WriteClearly, ReadClearly, and DLAW; co-founded a media business; and managed geographic data projects.  Mr. Chavan has graduate degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

IV Ashton President & Founder, LegalServer/Houston.ai

IV Ashton has spent his 20-year legal career leveraging technology to increase access to justice for vulnerable populations throughout the World.  Mr. Ashton began his legal career working internationally, applying technology to promote the rule of law. Mr. Ashton oversaw the development of the Kosovo War Crimes Database (documenting human rights violations in Kosovo), as well as several online tools for various Ministries of Justice throughout the Balkans, to help strengthen emerging legal systems.  In 1999 Mr. Ashton co-founded Illinois Legal Aid Online (ILAO), a leading website in the US that provides important legal resources to pro se litigants, pro bono attorneys, and legal aid attorneys. In 2001, Mr. Ashton founded LegalServer, a web-based case management platform used by hundreds of nonprofit agencies and public defenders. LegalServer has the singular purpose of helping those who cannot afford attorneys by leveraging technology to overcome the complexities and inefficiencies of our legal system.  Most recently, Mr. Ashton created a web-based platform applying machine learning to automate and streamline legal processes for vulnerable populations throughout the United States.

“. . . we’ve been thinking a lot about the explosion of digital evidence. . . terabytes of audio-video footage from body-worn cameras, web cameras at every corner, video recordings from everyone’s smartphone devices . . . Blockchain holds a lot of promise for managing all that.”

Blockchain is a tool that could change the way organizations handle money. Its built-in safeguards prevent electronic hacking. Beyond accounting, it could secure the authenticity of court documents and even identities. But are we willing to pay the price for all security?

Paul Embley and Di Graski explore the opportunities to courts and the limits of this emerging technology.

Di and Paul’s paper, “When Might Blockchain Appear in Your Court?” is narrated available as a bonus episode. The display version is available in the Show Notes section on our website.

Leave a comment or question about the podcast at [email protected]. 

About the Guests

Di Graski is grateful to be celebrating her eleventh anniversary with the National Center for State Courts’ Technology team. She is an attorney licensed in Colorado, a certified Project Management Professional, and a member of the IJIS Institute’s Blockchain Working Group. At NACM’s Annual Conference in July 2019, Di will participate in the panel discussion “Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Data Science.”

Paul Embley is the CIO and Technology Division Director at the National Center for State Courts. He began his career in Silicon Valley working for the “who’s who” of high tech (along with the “who’s no longer”). After 25 years in the for-profit sector, Paul shifted to public sector work on integrated justice.

“. . . [Blockchain records] could soon be used in a variety of innovative ways to resolve court record keeping challenges. At the same time, Blockchain presents new legal issues that courts must be prepared to address.”

This is an audio recitation of a paper written by Di Graski and Paul Embley titled “When Might Blockchain Appear in Your Court?” The paper appeared in the 2018 edition of Trends in State Courts published by the National Center for State Courts. 

This episode will appeal to listeners interested in trial courts, court administration, emerging technologies, digital security, and accounting and finance, and emergency response plans.

A link to a display version of Di and Paul’s paper, “When Might Blockchain Appear in Your Court?” is in the Show Notes section on our website.

Leave a comment or question about the podcast at [email protected]. 

About the Guests

Di Graski is grateful to be celebrating her eleventh anniversary with the National Center for State Courts’ Technology team.  She is an attorney licensed in Colorado, a certified Project Management Professional, and a member of the IJIS Institute’s Blockchain Working Group.  At NACM’s Annual Conference in July 2019, Di will participate in the panel discussion “Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Data Science.”

Paul Embley is the CIO and Technology Division Director at the National Center for State Courts. He began his career in Silicon Valley working for the “who’s who” of high tech (along with the “who’s no longer”). After 25 years in the for-profit sector, Paul shifted to public  

  Show Notes

On November 30, 2018, Anchorage, Alaska, suffered a magnitude 7.1 earthquake followed by thousands of aftershocks.  The quake was larger than the infamous 1989 Loma Prieta, California event.  How did the Alaska Court System’s emergency response plans hold up? What can we learn from Alaska’s experience and its preparations?  Christine Johnson and Alyce Roberts share their experiences and their insights having dealt firsthand with this powerful force of nature.   

When we think of earthquakes, we think of California however Alaska’s quake was larger than the infamous 1989 Loma Prieta event (a.k.a. the World Series Quake) which burned a large portion of San Francisco’s marina district. Alaskans still remember the 1964 Good Friday quake: the most powerful earthquake ever to hit North America. This is a thought-provoking episode for listeners interested in trial courts, court administration, disaster recovery, continuity of operations plans (COOP), and emergency response plans. To see a video of the actual quake in one of Alaska’s courtroom access the YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kjvpk2Fe6UQ.  

Leave a comment or question about the podcast at [email protected]. 

About the Presenters

Christine Johnson has been the Administrative Director of the Alaska Court System since 2009. A life-long Alaskan, she is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and the University of Michigan Law School. She and her family lived in Anchorage during the 1964 earthquake.  

 Alyce Roberts is the Special Projects Coordinator for the Alaska Court System.  As a member of the court’s senior staff, she is the AOC’s primary liaison with the clerks of court.  In this capacity, she develops the annual statewide clerks of court conference program, facilitating the sessions and serving as a presenter. Alyce regularly works with court colleagues and justice partners to propose revisions to court rules and develop statewide clerical procedures.  She serves on the Alaska Supreme Court’s Civil Rules Advisory Committee.  She has worked for the Alaska Court System since 1989, holding a number of positions including clerk of court in Anchorage (the state’s largest general jurisdiction court). She serves on the National Association for Court Management’s (NACM) Board of Directors, chairs NACM’s Communication Committee, and she is a Fellow of the Institute for Court Management (2010). 

Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) has already brought us general business tools that courts can use to assist in automating work, analyzing documents, and conducting legal analysis. As a start, courts will need to put their information into an electronic format that can be used by A.I. tools. They will also need to re-engineer their business practices. Small courts will have to be assertive in making their needs known. But, exactly how will A.I. tools help courts and what will we, as citizens, give up in privacy in order to maximize A.I.’s potential? Alan Carlson along with co-host Rick Pierce discuss how A.I. will be used in the courts and how soon it will be here. 

About the Presenter

Alan Carlson retired at the end of 2016 after working 40 years in state trial courts. He was the CEO (court administrator, clerk of court, and jury commissioner) of the Orange County (CA) Superior Court, the CEO in San Francisco Superior Court, the Executive Officer of the Monterey Superior Court, and the Assistant Executive officer of the Alameda County Superior Court. Mr. Carlson also was president of JMI, Director of Court Services at the CA AOC, and a Staff Attorney at NCSC. Mr. Carlson received a Distinguished Service Award from the California Judicial Council in 2016, the NACM Award of Merit in 2012, and the ABA Robert B. Yegge Award in 2010. He was inducted as a member of the NCSC’s Warren Burger Society in 2012. He received a law degree from Hastings College of Law and a BS in engineering from University of California at Berkeley.

About the Co-Host

Rick Pierce, Judicial Programs Administrator, has served in the field of court administration for the past thirty years. Prior to his appointment at the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, Pierce was the district court administrator for the 9th Judicial District of Pennsylvania, Cumberland County. As judicial programs administrator, he is responsible for implementation of programs and education in court administration at the general and limited jurisdiction court levels. Pierce was elected to the National Association for Court Management Board of Directors in July of 2017 and currently serves as a director and vice chair of the Governance Committee of NACM. Pierce served as the President of the Mid-Atlantic Association for Court Management from 2005-2006.He also served as President of the Pennsylvania Association of Court Management in 2000-2001. A graduate of Washington and Lee University, Pierce received his Master’s in Public Administration from Shippensburg University in 1995.

Last September, Hurricane Florence devastated North Carolina's families, communities, and its trial courts.  Court administrators Ellen Hancox and Caitlin Emmons tell how they made it through the storm, cared for their families, and managed to keep their courts afloat.  What lessons can we take away from their experience?

To cope, people had to come up with “contingency plans for their contingency plans” in order to deal with a storm that upended lives and work. Ellen and Caitlin talk about how their courts and their families endured, including judges who had not fully recovered from the previous hurricane (Matthew). They also describe their efforts at disaster recovery, their emergency plans, and their continuity of operations plans (COOP) during the crisis. Finally, they relate how they overcame unforeseen logistical and legal hurdles.

Leave a comment or question about the podcast at [email protected]. You can see addition information in the Show Notes section at nacmnet.org/podcasts.

About the Presenters 

Ellen Hancox has served as the Trial Court Administrator for Cumberland County, N. C. since 2002. She attended the University of Mary Washington and Campbell University School of Law. Before joining the court system, she was in private practice, and her practice was devoted to civil litigation. She is involved in the Cumberland County Bar Association, having served as President. She has served on various committees and boards with the North Carolina Bar Association.

Caitlin Emmons graduated from the University of California, Irvine School of Law in 2015. She was a fellow at the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice  from 2016-2017. In 2017, Caitlin relocated to North Carolina with her husband who is on active duty serving as a United States Marine. She worked as the Judicial Assistant for Onslow County from September 2017 until January 2019. She is now the Trial Court  Coordinator for Judicial District 4, which includes Onslow, Sampson, Duplin, and Jones counties.