Data specialists, information technologists convene to discuss emerging data trends

This year, 79 attendees from 24 states joined NCSC for two days of data and information technology presentations and discussions at the Maryland Judicial Center in Annapolis. Experts from courts, academia, and partner agencies joined NCSC staff to share trends and best practices.

“Both data and technology have become increasingly important to courts. Events like the summit provide an invaluable opportunity for us to take the time to think strategically about collection and use of state court data, now and in the future,” said Diane Robinson, an NCSC principal court research associate and summit organizer.

The agenda featured sessions on the National Open Court Data Standards, use of data to improve court services and communication, implications of record clearance initatives on court data, and data quality improvement. Attendees also explored emerging topics like “AI and Court Data” and “Ethics and AI.”

NCSC Data Scientist Andre Assumpcao offered a live workshop, “Beyond ChatGPT: How can AI tools help you?” where he shared NCSC's experience using large language models, such as ChatGPT, to extract data from court documents. The workshop was part of NCSC’s new product, the Data Dives series, and featured a demonstration of a data pipeline, which took in PDF documents, performed Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for extracting the text, and then restructured the textual information into a CSV file using ChatGPT.

View the workshop, presentation slides, and session notebook online at ncsc.org/datadives.

Robinson said she hopes these important data conversations will continue at CTC 2023 and throughout the year through engagement with data/IT partners in local courts and participation in list serv conversations and virtual meetings.

Judicial salary tracker updates now available

NCSC has released its midyear update on judicial salaries, which is available online and also downloadable as a PDF.

The data is current as of July 1, 2023, and includes salary information from all 50 states and all five territories. Since January 1, the median salary for a general jurisdiction trial court judge has increased by more than $5,000, up to $174,118. Median salaries for appellate court judges show similar increases.

NCSC has also recently published new resources on how states set judicial salaries and on judicial retirement plans.

Call for Article Submissions

Trends in State Courts is an annual, peer-reviewed publication that highlights innovative practices in critical areas that are of interest to courts, and often serves as a guide for developing new initiatives and programs, as well as informing and supporting policy decisions. Trends in State Courts is the only publication of its kind and enjoys a wide circulation among the state court community.

Submissions for the 2024 edition are now being accepted. Please email abstracts of no more than 500 words by October 16, 2023 to John Holtzclaw. We are interested in all aspects of court and court management but will give preferential consideration for mental health, court technology, and DEI initiatives. Abstracts received after this date are welcome and may be considered for next year's edition. Visit the Trends in State Courts webpage for detailed article submission guidelines.