The First Circuit reported it continued its efforts and progress in providing litigants with open, convenient, easy, and safe access to the court and its filings. The latest step taken this year was the launching of the court's ECase Subscription Service. Through this service, litigants get access to appellate court filings on their computers, laptops, iPads, or cell phones. They can view the appellate record, appellate briefs, court orders, and other court documents on file. This new service works seamlessly in conjunction with the other website services offered by the court. A litigant may receive notice of his case via the court s electronic notification; view his appeal record via the court s subscription service; electronically file his brief or motion; and receive the court's decision instantly via electronic notification.

The Second Circuit reported that in October, 2016, the court offered a one-day seminar for all clerks, deputy clerks, minute clerks and court reporters in the Second Circuit jurisdiction. At the seminar, the attendees were provided with information regarding assembling records on appeal and action to be taken in response to this court's orders. The presentations were led by the Clerk of Court, Central Staff Director, Assistant Central Staff Director, Chief Deputy, First Deputy, and Deputy Clerks. The topics included an in-depth examination of the Uniform Rules Courts of Appeal and the Second Circuit Local Rules, Code of Civil Procedure and Code of Criminal Procedure articles and Louisiana revised Statutes regarding appellate processes, fees, and the special requirements of preference appeals. The presentations included an interactive exercise in examining trial court rulings to determine how to complete jurisdictional indices, and covered recent changes in the law regarding collecting costs from governmental agencies and the handling of confidential filings or records. The court also upgraded the courtroom JAVS system and installed upgraded assisted listening devices.

The Third Circuit reported that it is currently in the process of moving from an old Novell Network to a modern Microsoft Active directory platform to bring the hardware back end up to today's technology standards. The court purchased 2 Hyper-RV Servers with an expanded SAN to replace the old Novel l network and VMWare. This project will include better disaster recovery and backups and a move to office 365 which will save money from purchasing hard licenses of office software with each new version. This project is scheduled for completion December 30, 2017. A second project started during the period is to speed up throughput related to data communication between our nine remote offices and main office. The court recently upped eight of the nine remote offices having fiber from 10 mbps to 400 to 500 mbps, for very little cost. The IT department of the court is putting in better firewalls at each location which contain very fast VPN tunnels from remote location to main court. This will eliminate the issue of using Citrix software with slow internet speeds in the past. This project is 60% complete and is on track to complete on November 30, 2017. The court's current case management software was no longer meeting court requirements The court's IT supervisor, David Nolan, visited the Fourth and Fifth Circuit Courts of Appeal and reviewed their case management software. After much analysis and determination of fit, it was decided that the Fifth Circuit has the best fit for the Third Circuit to use. The court began meeting with its IT counterparts in the Fifth Circuit to discuss getting the code and database layout to the Third Circuit. Then the court will begin making the required modifications to meet the Third circuit's requirements. This project was originally slated to be complete at the end of February 2018, but it is expected to continue past that time in order to obtain the software and begin the internal conversion.

The Fourth Circuit reported it recently introduced a new computer program to track all cases and filings. The system will make case management more efficient and record maintenance easier.

The Fifth Circuit reported it is now electronic in all aspects. The court now has electronic records, both writ filings and appellate records, that can be searched by term; a complete e-filing system; an electronic notification system for attorney subscribers; electronic opinions; electronic writ dispositions; and electronic orders, all utilizing an electronic signature process. The court also engaged in a pilot program with Angola to transmit the entire copy of the appellate record to inmates who wish to file pro se with this court. The record is printed out at Angola, and the inmate may keep the copy indefinitely.