§ 1-504 Electronic Reproduction and Imaging of Court Records

A. Definitions. In this section, the following definitions apply: “ANSI/AIIM” means the American National Standards Institute and the Association for Information and Image Management. These two organizations are responsible for promoting and facilitating voluntary consensus standards and conformity assessment systems and promoting their integrity. “Archival” means that point in the electronic document management process when the subject matter (for example, a case) associated with a document is no longer subject to modification, related documents are purged and the long-term or permanent copy of the document is created and maintained so as to reasonably ensure its preservation according to approved records retention schedules. “Backward compatible” means that a document storage system is compatible with earlier models or versions of the same product. Software is backward compatible if it can use files and data created with an older version of the same software program. Hardware is backward compatible if it can run the same software as the previous model. “Consultative Committee on International Telegraphy and Telephony” (CCITT) means an organization that sets international communications standards. “Electronic Document Management System” (EDMS) means a collection of computer software application programs and hardware devices that provide a means of organizing and controlling the creation, management and retrieval of documents through their life cycle. It may include workflow software which enables organizations to define routing and processing schemes to automate the business processes for document handling. It may also include imaging and optical character recognition (OCR) software and devices to support the capture, storage, and retrieval of document images from paper (“imaging”). “Electronic record” means any record that requires the aid of a computer to read the record. "Imaging" means the process of creating electronic copies by electronically photographing a document, photograph, color slide or other material using a scanner. Scanners record images digitally rather than on paper or film. “Imaging system” means the collection of computer software application programs and hardware devices that provides a means to capture, store, and retrieve document images from paper. An imaging system is often a part of an EDMS. “Index” means descriptive locator information about a digital document that allows the user to accurately identify it on electronic storage media. An index in an EDMS is an electronic file distinct from the collection of documents it catalogues. The act of providing the descriptive locator information is referred to as “indexing.” For example, a document might be “indexed” by its case number, party names, document type and date filed. “Media” means physical devices for storing data and images. It includes write once/read many (WORM) compact discs, compact disc-read only memory (CD-ROM), and digital video disc (DVD). “Metadata” means descriptive information about a document that is not displayed within the viewable content of the document but is an inherent part of the document. Document management systems rely on metadata for search indexes. “Migration” means the process of upgrading to new technologies while preserving accessibility to existing records. It includes translating one electronic data format to another when a new computer or data management system is incompatible with the existing system. It also means the process of moving electronic data from one storage device or media to another. “Non-proprietary” means material (particularly software) that is not subject to ownership and control by a third party. “Proprietary,” on the other hand, generally refers to vendor-owned material whose specifications are not public. “Open system standard” means a published and commonly available interface specification that describes services provided by a software product. As a result, the specification is available to anyone and evolves through a consensus process that is open to the entire industry. “Pixel” means picture element and is the smallest element of a display surface that can be independently assigned color or intensity. The number of pixels determines the sharpness or clarity of an image and in imaging is often expressed in dots per inch (dpi). “Records” means the electronic or imaged documents and files in an EDMS. “Refresh” means the copying of an image or a whole storage medium for the purpose of preserving or enhancing the quality of the images. “Reproduction” means the process of making an identical copy from an existing document on the same or different media. “Structured query language” (SQL) means a standardized query language for requesting information from a database. “Tagged image file format” (TIFF) means a format for storing images on computers. It includes a standardized header or tag that defines the exact data structure of the associated image.

B. Applicability. These standards shall apply to all records imaged by courts, including the methods used to electronically reproduce or create records and also the methods and formats used to electronically store, archive and reproduce records for the purpose of maintenance and preservation.

C. General Requirements 1 Courts shall use the Commission on Technology-approved EDMS or one approved by COT as an exception. Exception EDMSs shall not employ proprietary designs, formats, software or media or require use of non–standard devices to access records.

2. Courts shall employ indexing procedures and security procedures that prevent unauthorized modification or deletion of records.

3. Courts shall establish written procedures to ensure imaged records accurately replicate the source document.

D. Imaging and Indexing Requirements

1. The imaging system shall output Portable Document Format (PDF) or TIFF.

2. The imaging system shall support scanning densities of 200 to 600 pixels (dots) per inch or higher.

3. Scanning quality must adhere to the standards presented in Recommended Practices for Quality Control of Image Scanners (ANSI/AIIM MS44-1988 (R1993)).

4. The imaging system must support the current CCITT image compression/decompression Group 3 or Group 4 techniques without proprietary alterations to the algorithm. If the use of a proprietary compression algorithm is unavoidable, the system must provide a gateway to either Group 3 or Group 4 standards (or to a compression standard subsequently adopted by ANSI/AIIM).

5. The imaging system shall use standard relational database technology to store the index and provide access using ANSI SQL.

6. Image processing procedures shall include population of an index as well as an index entry verification step, to ensure that each image is easily and accurately retrievable.

7. Image processing procedures shall include a quality assurance step to ensure each scanned image contains high fidelity to the paper original. Documents that become unreadable as a result of the scanning process shall be re-scanned immediately.

8. The indexing process shall also identify documents which are subject to approved criteria for purging in ACJA § 3-402 prior to performing any conversion to a permanent archival format.

9. Courts shall meet the requirements of ACJA § 1-507 prior to destroying any paper document associated with an image.

E. Accessibility. Courts shall ensure that the public is afforded reasonable access to records, consistent with Supreme Court Rule 123 via the public access portal managed by the Administrative Office of the Courts, at a minimum. Courts shall ensure that records that are sealed or confidential by rule or law contain appropriate metadata to enable any EDMS in which they reside to protect them from inappropriate access.

F. Migration Requirements for Courts Having Standalone or Exception EDMSs

1. Courts shall ensure accessibility with a planned migration path so devices, media and technologies used to store and retrieve records are not allowed to become obsolete and are promptly replaced or upgraded.

2. Courts shall ensure that any new equipment or software for an existing imaging system is backward compatible and shall obtain a vendor certification that the system will convert 100% of the image and index data to the new system so access to existing records is never impeded.

3. Courts shall periodically refresh electronic images in order to ensure their accessibility for as long as the applicable record retention schedules require. These procedures may require recopying of images to new media.

G. Retention and Storage Requirements

1. All media used for storing records must comply with accepted computer industry standards.

2. The manufacturer's recommendation for storage and use of storage media shall dictate the criteria for storing and using such media.

3. Courts shall annually inspect and test a random sampling of media used for storing records to verify its good condition.

4. Courts shall use only non-reusable media for storing records for archival purposes.

5. Courts shall ensure that records generated by or received for the courts are preserved in accordance with the applicable records retention schedules and security requirements.

H. Disconnected Scanning Requirements for Limited Jurisdiction Courts

1. Courts shall complete the necessary index and quality assurance steps, including verification of each document’s legibility and appropriateness of metadata, required to commit the scanned document to the central EDMS maintained by the AOC.

2. Courts shall change the case status code for each active case that becomes subject to no further action to “Completed” within any case management system that is integrated with the central EDMS maintained by the AOC.

3. Courts shall use the AOC’s designated event code when scanning closed records for archival purposes on the central EDMS maintained by the AOC. All documents associated with a closed case in a limited jurisdiction court shall be scanned as a single, multi-image file. Adopted by Administrative Order 2001-11 effective January 11, 2001. Amended by Administrative Order 2012-05, effective January 11, 2012.