Washington State Administrative Office of the Courts

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Washington StateAdministrative Officeof the
Courts

• Presented By
• Kathie McClure

Justice XML
September 3, 2015
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Justice XML

• (A story with a moral (or two)

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How It Started

• Courts other state and local agencies wanted
  data from the court case management systems.
• State justice agencies (JIN) wanted to exchange
  data.
• National justice agencies wanted to rewrite
  their stovepipe standards for the web.

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What Happened Next 1

• WA Courts picked J2EE as their new development
  architecture.
• JIN decided to use XML as the basis of their
  revised data dictionary.
• Each national justice association rewrote their
  data exchange standards in isolation.

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What Happened Next 2

• WA courts discovered that they knew nothing about
  XML data exchanges, but it sounded good.
• JIN found none of the state justice agencies had
  experience with XML and they werent sure they
  wanted to.
• Each of the national associations wanted everyone
  else to standardize on their data.

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What Happened Next 3

• The courts learned that XML is not magic and
  there is no substitute for hard technical
  experience.
• JIN learned that agencies will not plan and
  budget for the long-run unless there is an
  executive policy decision to do so.
• DOJ learned that negotiations to agree on
  national standards are very political.

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The Happy Endings

• The courts invested in XML expertise and began
  several small pilot projects.
• Several state justice agencies committed to XML
  data exchanges as a policy.
• DOJ successfully sponsored a national normalized
  XML data dictionary.

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Contact Information

• Name Tom Clarke
• Title Information Services Director
• Company Administrative Office of the Courts
• Address 1206 Quince St. SE
• Olympia, WA 98504-1170
• Email tom.clarke_at_courts.wa.gov
• Phone [phone]
• Fax [phone]