Track 1: eCourtMN Tools Developed for Minnesota Judges by Minnesota Judges
Tuesday, September 22, 11:15 AM - 12:30 PM
Location: Auditorium 1
Presenters: Hon. Peter Cahill, Hon. Carrie Lennon, Jen VanDemmeltraadt, Sarah Hayes
Track: Tools for the 21st-Century Judge
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Who best understands what judges need to thrive in a paperless environment? Developers? Analysts? Court Administrators? Nope. Judges. Learn how Minnesota not only successfully utilized a team of judges to develop a judicial case management application from the ground up, but also involved judges in the development, testing, and configuration of an automated workflow solution. A demo of the judicial case management application will be provided. Also learn the considerations of developing and deploying these tools statewide among a diverse group of counties.
Session Materials
About the Presenters
Peter Cahill is the chief judge of the Hennepin County District Court in Minneapolis, where he presides over criminal cases and manages the trial court system for 1.2 million county residents and 62 judges. He has been a judge since 2007 and currently serves as the chair of the Minnesota Judicial Branch eCourt Steering Committee. Before his appointment to the bench, he was the chief deputy county prosecutor in Minneapolis, where he served on several technology committees, including the Minnesota e-Charging Design Committee, the Minnesota Criminal and Juvenile Information Task Force, the Juvenile Network Workgroup, and the Hennepin County Justice Integration Program and IT Advisory Board. Judge Cahill practiced in criminal litigation both as a defense attorney and prosecutor for 23 years before his appointment to the bench, during which he saw the practice of law evolve from electric typewriters to statewide case management systems and entirely paperless courts.
Carrie Lennon is a district court judge in First Judicial District in Scott County, Minnesota. She presides in a district of 34 judges who sit in 7 counties separate counties. Communication and access to information is key when judges are moved around in multi-county districts. Scott County was a pilot county for the task manager program. Prior to her appointment in 2008, Judge Lennon worked as a felony prosecutor in Hennepin County.
Jen VanDemmeltraadt serves as the infrastructure and development program manager in the Information Technology Division of the Minnesota State Court Administrator’s Office. She is responsible for the development and deployment of the judicial officer tool, BenchWorks. Additionally, she oversees the Minnesota Judicial Branch’s biggest organizational project, the new public website redesign, which launched over the summer of 2015. She has been employed in state government for 27 years and finds it both interesting and rewarding.
Sarah Hayes is a court operations analyst in the Court Services Division of the Minnesota State Court Administrator’s Office. She is currently serving as the project lead for Task Manager (automated workflow) and has been involved in its development and deployment statewide. Additional areas of focus include providing a business perspective on technical projects for system rewrites, new development projects, and review of court administration process changes to promote optimal business practices for local courts and other agencies. She began her work in the public sector in 2000.