Legal XML - status work on Legal Transcripts Technical Committee

["Diane.Lewis@usdoj.gov" <Diane.Lewis@usdoj.gov>]

Hi! 
just wanted to share a recent finding from the federal practitioner's point of view... 

you may already be familiar with e-transcripts ... .ptx file format used by some vendors to store/access court transcripts....

some federal practitioners  are now being given a choice of receiving legal transcripts in either .ptx or .txt format... via email.

as i have stated before in the court filing meetings there is a need for the courtfiling tc to devote some time and resources on the payload definitions... or if you like picking up the court document sub TC work.. which i believe has laid dormant... for sometime due to focus on court filing mechanisms/infrastructure. 

i regret i will not be able to attend the New Orleans face to face meeting to discuss this need with all interested parties... but it is my hope that the newly elected LEGAL XML steering committee members will recognize that there is in fact an urgent need to develop a LegalXML strategy that will devote resources to court document content and reactivate those initiatives that have been inactive.. and produce a framework whereby other related efforts to define content of legal documents in XML structures (e.g. contracts) are  appropriately linked or the defined specs leveraged.

The DOJ is moving toward expanding use of the Justice Data Model.  This needs to be considered a factor in any discussion regarding court documents or for that matter legal documents.   Alot of work has been done over these past years .. now is the time to update the previous court document/transcripts work and finalize a specification(s) for interested party review.   

Appreciate your assistance and guidance in moving forward on creating intelligent court documents whether filed by the practitioner or created by the judge or court reporter.    diane