[tc-announce] OASIS TC Call For Participation: LegalXML ElectronicCourt Filing TC

["Karl F. Best" <karl.best@oasis-open.org>]

A new OASIS technical committee is being formed. The OASIS LegalXML
Electronic Court Filing Technical Committee has been proposed by the
following members of OASIS: Donald L. Bergeron, Lexis-Nexis; Moira O’
Leary Rowley, ASC; Robin Gibson, OSCA; and by Mohyeddin Abdulaziz,
Terrie Bousquin, Rolly L. Chambers, John M. Greacen, James I. Keane,
John Messing, and Sean Wood, all Individual members.

The proposal for a new TC meets the requirements of the OASIS TC Process
(see http://oasis-open.org/committees/process.shtml), and is appended to
this message. The proposal, which includes a statement of purpose, list
of deliverables, and proposed schedule, will constitute the TC's
charter. The TC Process allows these items to be clarified (revised) by
the TC members; such clarifications (revisions), as well as submissions
of technology for consideration by the TC and the beginning of technical
discussions, may occur no sooner than the TC's first meeting.

To become a member of this new TC you must 1) be an employee of an OASIS
member organization or an Individual member of OASIS; 2) notify the TC
co-chairs, John M. Greacen (john@greacen.net) or Moira O’Leary Rowley
(moira.rowley@acs-inc.com), of your intent to participate at least 15
days prior to the first meeting; and 3) participate in the first meeting
on 20 June. You should also subscribe to the TC's mail list. Note that
membership in OASIS TCs is by individual, and not by organization. You
must be eligible for participation at the time you time you notify the
chair.

The private mail list legalxml-courtfiling@lists.oasis-open.org is for
committee discussions. TC members as well as any other interested OASIS
members should subscribe to the list by going to the mail list web page
at http://lists.oasis-open.org/ob/adm.pl, or by sending a message to
legalxml-courtfiling-request@lists.oasis-open.org with the word
"subscribe" as the body of the message. (Note that subscribing to the
mail list does not make you a member of the TC; to become a member you
must contact the TC chair as described in the preceeding paragraph.)

A public comment list legalxml-courtfiling-comment@lists.oasis-open.org
will be available for the public to make comments on the work of this
TC; the public may subscribe to this list by going to the mail list web
page at http://lists.oasis-open.org/ob/adm.pl, or by sending a message
to legalxml-courtfiling-comment-request@lists.oasis-open.org with the
word "subscribe" as the body of the message.

The archives of both of these mail lists are visible to the public at
http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/

</karl>
=================================================================
Karl F. Best
OASIS - Director, Technical Operations
+1 978.667.5115 x206
karl.best@oasis-open.org  http://www.oasis-open.org



Proposal for OASIS LegalXML Electronic Court Filing Technical Committee,
under the OASIS LegalXML Member Section

(i) Name of Technical Committee

Electronic Court Filing Technical Committee within the LegalXML Member
Section.  The Technical Committee plans to constitute the following
subcommittees, and such additional subcommittees as shall appear
necessary and appropriate to carrying out the Technical Committee’s
purpose:

* Case Management System Application Program Interface (CMS/API)
Subcommittee
* Court Document Subcommittee
* Court Filing Policy Subcommittee
* Query & Response Subcommittee

(ii) Purpose of Technical Committee

The Electronic Court Filing Technical Committee will develop
specifications for the use of XML to create legal documents and to
transmit legal documents from an attorney, party or self-represented
litigant to a court, from a court to an attorney, party or
self-represented litigant or to another court, and from an attorney or
other user to another attorney or other user of legal documents.
Because it is an essential part of the business model for electronic
filing applications, the Technical Committee will also develop
specifications for (1) querying a court for data or documents and for
returning the response to such a query, (2) expressing unique court
policies and requirements in XML, (3) providing legally sufficient
service of court filings on other attorneys and unrepresented parties to
a court case (and, if and when authorized by law, service of process on
defendants or respondents to establish the court’s jurisdiction over
them under principles of due process of law), and (4) linking electronic
documents to law firm and court case management information and document
management systems.  It will develop additional specifications found to
be needed to support the transition of courts and the legal profession
from reliance upon paper documents and paper court files to electronic
documents and electronic case files.

In addition to the OASIS approval process, the Electronic Court Filing
Technical Committee will provide its proposed and recommended
specifications to the National Consortium for State Court Automation
Standards, a subcommittee of the Joint Technology Committee of the
Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA) and National
Association for Court Management (NACM).  The National Consortium
further vets the Technical Committee’s recommendations through a “Joint
Standards Development (JSD) Team” comprised of representatives of state
and local courts and private sector service providers interested in and
knowledgeable about electronic court filing.  The Joint Technology
Committee acts upon the Technical Committee’s proposals, based upon the
JSD team’s recommendations, to adopt a specification as a “proposed
standard” for experimental implementation.  After a “proposed standard”
successfully completes two interoperability tests, the Technical
Committee transmits the specification to the Joint Technology Committee
for adoption as a “recommended standard.”  When the Joint Technology
Committee approves that recommendation, it is sent to the Boards of
Directors of the two parent bodies for formal adoption on behalf of all
state courts.  The members of the Conference of Chief Justices will then
take whatever actions are required to implement the standards in their
jurisdictions.

The Conference of State Court Administrators and National Association
for Court Management may also submit the specifications for recognition
by the Global Justice Information Network Advisory Committee of the
United States Department of Justice.

(iii) List of deliverables

The Electronic Court Filing Technical Committee plans to complete the
following tasks during its first year of operation:

1. Post the Electronic Court Filing 1.0 specification and DTD and the
Electronic Court Filing 1.1 specification and DTD, which supercedes the
1.0 specification, developed by the Court Filing Work Group of Legal
XML, Inc. on the Technical Committee site for general information and
comment.  These specifications support the transmission of electronic
documents in any format from a filer to a court, together with all data
needed by the court to enter the document (or a new case, if the
document submitted initiates a new case) into the court’s case
management information and document management systems, and the return
of an acknowledgement.  The Electronic Court Filing 1.1 specification
and DTD have been recommended by the JSD team for approval by the
National Consortium and the Joint Technology Committee at their next
meetings in late July, 2002.

2. Develop a proposed Query & Response 1.0 specification and DTD by the
end of June, 2002, for transmission to the JSD team, the National
Consortium, and the Joint Technology Committee for consideration at
their July, 2002 meetings.  The Query & Response specification, which
supports eight standard queries and unstructured queries from court
users to courts for case and document information, is in an advanced
stage of development.

3. Develop a proposed Court Document 1.0 specification and DTD by the
end of June, 2002, for transmission to the JSD team, the National
Consortium, and the Joint Technology Committee for consideration at
their July, 2002 meetings. The Court Document 1.0 specification and DTD,
which supports XML markup of typical court documents, is in an advanced
stage of development.

4. Reach consensus on a definition for an interoperability test for
electronic court filing XML specifications by the end of June, 2002, for
transmission to the JSD team, the National Consortium, and the Joint
Technology Committee for consideration at their July, 2002 meetings.
The definition is in an advanced stage of development

5. Develop a proposed specification for a Case Management System
Application Program Interface, which will support a standard interface
between court case management information systems and electronic filing
applications using the Electronic Court Filing 1.1 specification, by the
end of October, 2002, for transmission to the JSD team, the National
Consortium, and the Joint Technology Committee for consideration at
their December, 2002 meetings. This specification as well is in an
advanced stage of development.

6. Develop a proposed Court Filing Policy 1.0 specification and DTD or
Schema to convey local court policies and conventions to electronic
filing users by the end of October, 2002, for transmission to the JSD
team, the National Consortium, and the Joint Technology Committee for
consideration at their December, 2002 meetings.

7. Comment on proposed Electronic Filing Standards and a proposed Model
Policy on Public Access and Privacy in Court Records being developed by
a subcommittee of the National Consortium and a Joint Committee of COSCA
and CCJ, respectively, scheduled for completion by the end of June,
2002.

8. Develop a proposed Electronic Court Filing 2.0 specification and
schema, to incorporate SOAP, extensions and modifications to the 1.1
specification suggested by implementations, electronic signatures, and
any further changes that may occur in the “reconciled” criminal justice
XML development principles and data elements developed by the XML
Standards Subcommittee of the Infrastructure Standards Working Group of
the Global Justice Information Network Advisory Committee of the
Department of Justice.

(iv) Language in which the Technical Committee will conduct business

All business will be conducted in English.

(v) Date and time of the first meeting

The first formal meeting of the Electronic Court Filing Technical
Committee will be a teleconference on Thursday 20 June 2002, with
several members meeting in person on Thursday and Friday, June 20 and
21, 2002 in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Prospective members may comment upon
draft requirements documents, drafts of proposed specifications, and
other matters within the purpose and objectives of the Technical
Committee posted on the discussion list
(legalxml-courtfiling-discuss@lists.oasis-open.org) prior to the first
meeting.

Subcommittees will meet by conference telephone call or make decisions
by email.  The CMS/API subcommittee will meet face-to-face in Salt Lake
City, Utah on Wednesday afternoon, June 19, 2002.

(vi) Meeting schedule for the year following formation of the Technical
Committee

The Electronic Court Filing Technical Committee will hold face to face
meetings quarterly.  The dates and places for those meetings are:

* June 20 and 21, 2002, Salt Lake City, Utah
* October 2 and 3, 2002, Boston, Massachusetts
* December 12 and 13, 2002, Las Vegas, Nevada
* April, 2003, To be determined
* July, 2003, To be determined

(vii) Names, electronic addresses and membership affiliations of persons
eligible for OASIS Technical Committee Participation committed to the
stated meeting schedule

The following OASIS members support the creation of the Electronic Court
Filing Technical Committee:

* Mohyeddin Abdulaziz, abdulaziz@apltwo.ct.state.az.us, Individual
member
* Donald L. Bergeron, Donald.Bergeron@LEXIS-NEXIS.COM, Lexis-Nexis
* Terrie Bousquin, Bousquin@greacen.net, Individual member
* Rolly L. Chambers, rlchambers@justice.com, Individual member
* Robin Gibson, Robin_Gibson@osca.state.mo.us, OSCA
* John M. Greacen, john@greacen.net, Individual member
* James I. Keane, jik@jkeane.com, Individual member
* John Messing, jmessing@law-on-line.com, Individual member
* Moira O’Leary Rowley, moira.rowley@acs-inc.com, ASC
* Sean Wood, swood@perfectprobate.com, Individual member

(viii) Names of the Technical Committee Co-chairs

The co-chairs of the Electronic Court Filing Technical Committee are
John M. Greacen and Moira O’Leary Rowley.

(ix) Names of phone meeting sponsors

None

(x) Names of face-to-face meeting sponsors

The Salt Lake City, Utah meeting will be sponsored by the Administrative
Office of the Courts of Utah and the Utah State Bar Association.

Sponsors for other meetings have not yet been determined.

(xi) Policies and procedures of the Electronic Court Filing Technical
Committee

The Electronic Court Filing Technical Committee will follow the
operating rules of OASIS and any operating rules adopted by the LegalXML
Member Section Steering Committee with the approval of OASIS management
and the OASIS Board of Directors.  In addition, the Technical Committee
will abide by the following practices:

1.  All decisions will be made by consensus.
2.  All decisions made in face-to-face meetings will be subject to
ratification or rejection by the full membership of the Technical
Committee on the list serve.
3.  All email discussions concerning the technical work of the Technical
Committee and its subcommittees will take place on OASIS supported list
serves.
4.  One member of the Technical Committee and of each subcommittee will
serve as ombudsman to monitor the public list for that entity and
provide input from the public list to the committee and subcommittee
discussions.
5.  In no event shall this Technical Committee finalize or approve any
technical specification if it believes that the use, distribution, or
implementation of such specification would necessarily require the
unauthorized infringement of any third party rights known to the
technical committee, and such third party has not agreed to provide
necessary license rights on perpetual, royalty-free, non-discriminatory
terms.