Judicial Data Management Services (JDMS)

Florida's State Courts System has begun the development of an Integrated Trial Court Adjudicatory System, a project that will optimize the ability of judges and case managers to electronically process and manage cases. The project is also designed to assist chief and administrative judges and court managers in the effective management of court operations and resources. The project has two major components: 1) Judicial Viewers, which focus on case management services for judges; and 2) Judicial Data Management Services (JDMS), which focuses on state level court activity data and analysis services for court managers and other stakeholders.

The JDMS project will develop a computing environment to provide state-level data management services to all elements of the court system. Those services include:

  • Data Consolidation and Standardization Services
  • Reporting Services
  • Processing Services
  • Data Warehouse and Analytical Services

Specifically, the JDMS system will benefit judges, court managers, and users of the court system by providing meaningful data and analysis to: 1) improve adjudicatory outcomes through case management and program evaluation, 2) increase operational efficiency through efficient use of shared resources, and 3) support organizational priorities through legislative resource and budgetary requests. JDMS will additionally enhance the ability of the state courts system to provide court-related data to assist policymakers in evaluating policy and budget options.

Uniform Case Reporting (UCR) Project

On September 17, 2015, the Commission on Trial Court Performance and Accountability adopted the final proposal for the Uniform Case Reporting (UCR) Project and the accompanying data collection specification. On April 27, 2016, the Supreme Court issued AOSC16-15 In Re: Uniform Case Reporting Requirements directing clerks of court to provide case activity data to the Office of the State Courts Administrator in accordance with the specification provided below.  As with all new data collection efforts, the UCR Project is being developed in accordance with the JDMS framework and principles.  The current version of the UCR Data Collection Specification is provided below. 

Implementation Schedule

In Re: Uniform Case Reporting ImplementationPDF Download, Supreme Court Administrative Order AOSC20-30 (May 11, 2020) established the following implementation schedule for completion of transition to reporting under UCR for all division and case types.   All reporting custodians are encouraged to look for specific opportunities to advance this process.  The time frame on this implementation schedule will be interpreted to mean “as soon as possible but no later than”.

Division

Time Frame

Circuit Civil

December 31, 2021

Family (including Family Law/Domestic Relations, Juvenile Delinquency and Dependency)

December 31, 2021

Probate & County Civil

December 31, 2021

Circuit Criminal & County Criminal

December 31, 2021

Involuntary Civil Commitment of Sexually Violent Predators

December 31, 2021

Reporting custodians may request extensions to the UCR Implementation deadlines by submitting a letter addressed to:

Ms. Elisabeth H. Kiel
State Courts Administrator
ATTN: Court Services
Supreme Court Building
500 S. Duval Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1900

This letter may be emailed to UCRhelpdesk@flcourts.org.

Please refer to In Re: Uniform Case Reporting ImplementationPDF Download, AOSC20-30 (May 11, 2020) for specific information about the format and content of the extension request.

Previous extensions granted may be found in AOSC18-18PDF Download, AOSC18-31PDF Download, AOSC18-75PDF Download, AOSC19-17PDF Download and AOSC19-68PDF Download.

Clerk of Court Transition to Uniform Case Reporting

Transitioning to reporting under the UCR will occur in two phases: 

Phase I: Data Exchange Capability

Verifies the technical infrastructure for UCR reporting.  This phase ensures that the clerk of court can access the OSCA data exchange site and exchange properly formed UCR data packages containing the expected types of data in accordance with the current version of UCR Data Exchange Schema. It requires close collaboration with clerks of court and the OSCA.

Phase II: Analysis and Verification

Verifies that the content of the case activity data provided by the clerk of court is of sufficient quality to provide the state courts system with the timely, accurate, and reliable organizational information required.  Requires certification from three stakeholders, clerks of court, circuit courts and the OSCA.

Phase I – Data Exchange Capability

The goal of Phase I is to develop the necessary infrastructure to report case activity data to the OSCA using one of the approved reporting mechanisms established in the UCR Data Collection Specification and associated UCR02 XML Schema Document. 

Milestones for data exchange via web services:

1.   Develop the extract or trigger queries to output relevant event records as the data changes.

2.   Format case activity event records into the UCR data packages as per specification.

3.   Connect to the OSCA data exchange service.

4.   Exchange a UCR data package with service.

5.   Complete an initial upload of all open and reopened cases.

    5.1.  Test of capability

 

5.2.  Completion of initial upload

    5.2.1.    Submit a current, up-to-date upload of all open and reopened cases in the clerk of court CMS.
    5.2.2.    Begin routine submission of all subsequent case activity.

6.   Define a meaningful and responsive error reporting and correction process

Milestones for data exchange via CMS replication:

1. Establish a CMS replica accessible by OSCA

    1.1.   OSCA establishes linked server connection to replica
    1.2.   Negotiation of appropriate Service Level Agreements
    1.3.   Sharing of data dictionaries

2.    Verification that clerk of court CMS is capable of satisfying UCR requirements

3.    Develop the extract or trigger queries to output relevant event records as the data changes
4.    Format case activity event records into the UCR data packages as per specification
5.    Complete an initial upload of all open and reopened cases
6.    Define a meaningful and responsive error reporting and correction process 
 

At the end of Phase I, the clerk’s office will be able to:

  • Transmit an initial upload of all open and reopened cases
  • Transmit case activity event records in near real time to the OSCA data exchange service with event records generated as data changes.

At the end of Phase I, the OSCA will be able to:

  • Receive and process case activity event data
  • Provide clerks of court with timely and relevant event record error information

 

Phase II – Analysis and Verification

The UCR reporting structure is intended to replace a number of existing reporting requirements. (Please see page 7 of the Uniform Case Reporting Specification.)  The goal of Phase II is to ensure that the clerk of court can provide consistent and near-real-time case activity data across several quality dimensions and to ensure that the OSCA is able to produce accurate and reliable reports based on clerk data.  

Previous experience with other data collection systems such as the Offender Based Transaction System and the Foreclosure Initiative Data system has demonstrated that this phase is most productive following a variation of the plan-do-check quality cycle.  The OSCA will validate each report for the clerk of court as an iterative series of submissions, analytical reviews, and corrective actions. 

The corrective action will be focused on the process of reporting the data in addition to the actual data values so that the OSCA can build confidence that the clerk will continue, after the verification cycle, to submit reliable and accurate data and the clerk of court can build confidence that the OSCA is computing accurate case activity statistics. 

This phase begins at completion of Phase I with live near-real time case activity event data.  Time to complete Phase II will vary by clerk’s office, although it is anticipated take 4-6 months. There are three stakeholders involved in this phase of the transition, the clerk of court, the circuit, and the OSCA.

Throughout Phase II, OSCA and clerk staff will:

  • Reliably submit UCR event data in near real time
  • Review summary and diagnostic reports to verify data quality.  Report review will occur as follows:
    • Judge Inventory Report (includes case inventory statistics and pending caseload)
    • Summary Reporting System (SRS) reports
    • Complex Civil Litigation reports

The clerk, as custodian of the record, retains responsibility for report accuracy through the detail data.  As each clerk of court certifies the corresponding report results, the OSCA will provide a date on which the clerk’s office may stop sending each report via the previous reporting mechanism and transition for that report will be complete.

Milestones

1. Clerk of court certifies, in writing, that the case activity reports computed by the OSCA from UCR data are accurate and reliable and

    1.1.   The Judge Inventory Report reflects true caseload distribution
    1.2.   Case activity summary reports reflect correct monthly totals as determined by the clerk of court
    1.3.   Complex Civil Caseload report is accurate for the quarter defined

2. Circuit court certifies, in writing, that the case activity reports computed by the OSCA from UCR data supplied by the clerk of court are accurate and reliable and

    2.1.   The Judge Inventory Report reflects true caseload distribution
    2.2.   Case activity summary reports reflect correct monthly totals as determined by the clerk of court
    2.3.   Complex Civil Caseload report is accurate for the quarter defined

3. OSCA certifies, in writing, that

    3.1.   The UCR data package submission process is stable and effectively near-real-time
    3.2.   Case activity data submissions reflect a process with expected random variations across appropriate quality dimension (accuracy, completeness, uniqueness, timeliness, consistency, and auditability)
    3.3.   All issues that significantly impact the quality of case activity data are addressed

 

Additional UCR Resources

The XML schema document provided below contains all the validation criteria for each type of event reported per the specification.  Please use the current version of the UCR02 schema to validate your XML reports.  Also provided is a UCR Data Dictionary, which lists the required and optional data elements for each event type in chart format.  

Note:All reporting custodians beginning transition for any division of court must comply with the latest version of the UCR XML schema in effect at the time of transition.  

Examples of Event Type Records:

 Documentation for the OSCA's web service: 

OSCA Web Service Technical Specification Version 1.0.2PDF Download

 

Please note: User credentials are required for interacting with the OSCA's web service, and the sender's IP address must be recorded to open the firewall for consumption. Contact the OSCA to coordinate access to the test and production sites before attempting to upload data.

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