Special Commission on the Future of the New York State Courts

estructuring plan should move forward immediately, regardless
of what is ultimately decided about the future of the Justice
Courts.
Additional Issues
Technological Changes. In many ways, the confusing
technological landscape of New York’s present court system
mirrors the archaic and convoluted structure of our trial courts.
The technology created to service our many distinct courts
developed at various times using different technologies such that
the computer systems are, generally speaking, not compatible
with one another. Therefore, much like the litigant who is forced
to have custody issues litigated in Family Court and matrimonial
issues litigated in the Supreme Court, the current information
systems of the courts do not provide a Supreme Court judge or
clerk with access to the computer database of the Family Court,
and vice versa. These separate computer systems and databases
are another consequence of our balkanized court system.
It is clear that having a uniform computer system – where
information concerning all of the cases of the newly merged
Supreme Court and of the newly created District Court would
reside – is critical to the success of our proposal. We note,
however, that instead of being an impediment to court merger,
the process of harmonizing the computer systems of the various
courts is already well underway, and should at this point make
court restructuring even easier to implement.
In spite of a lack of structural reform, OCA recognized
some time ago that the need to share data across counties and
courts, and the need for various agencies which interact with the
courts (e.g., the District Attorney’s office, State Police) to have
access to the same data, necessitated changes to the current
system. In April 1998, OCA issued its plan to institute a
Universal Case Management System (“UCMS”) for the courts.
The goal is to create a single, universalized, case database to
facilitate the sharing of data within and between individual civil
and criminal courts, and among civil and criminal justice
agencies. The hope is that this project – which is being
introduced in phases – will be totally completed within the next
A Court System for the Future, February 2007 83