Overview

• The Alaska court system is primarily state funded.  Alaska’s state appropriation was increased from $97.4 million in FY11 to $103.9 million in FY12, an increase of more than 5%.  As a result, they are able to increase the number of judges and staff and also the amount spent on operating expenses.
• Alaska has had to impose a 30 day period before filling vacancies.  With fewer staff available to perform the work, some case management processes may be delayed. Files are not sent as timely for archiving and data entry not performed as timely as desired.
• Alaska has implemented e-citations, e-payment of fees and fines and videoconferencing of hearings.  E-payments and e-citations have reduced clerical workload involved with manually receipting revenues and sending out citations and reminders. Videoconferencing has reduced travel costs and prisoner transport costs (for the Dept. of Public Safety).
• The Alaska Court System is able to and has reallocated clerical resources based on need (filings, type of filings, community needs, etc).
• The Alaska Court System continues to make enhancements to its case management system. During FY11, a major focus has been placed on piloting a case management enhancement to accommodate the entry and storage of bail conditions at the time they are imposed in the court room. This project has included development of uniform, standardized bail conditions/orders and software modifications to link dockets to electronic documents such as bail orders, charging documents and criminal judgments. When deployed, authorized external agencies will have access to this information, which may aide in the enforcement of the bail conditions of release.
• The Alaska Court System received a federal grant to assist with the planning and development of a disaster recovery plan and is employing industry "best practices" in moving forward with the development of a disaster recovery solution and enhanced data backup system.
• The Alaska Court System received funding in FY12 to add two new superior court judges to the Anchorage court. This additional resource should help move cases more expeditiously. In FY12, the court system also received capital funding to begin plans to implement e-filing and an electronic document management system.

Gavel to Gavel

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