Reconsidering CourTools Measure #6: Reliability & Integrity of Case Files

How do we measure the accuracy

and completeness of an electronic case file?

Harris County (Houston, Texas)

Court Business Intelligence System

Data Information Knowledge Decisions Presented by:

Harry Leverette Assistant to the Court Manager

Harris County Courts Harry_leverette@ccl.hctx.net

Harris County Court Manager’s Office (Houston, Texas)

Harris County Criminal Courts at Law (15)

~80,000 misdemeanor filings/yr

13,334 active cases pending today

Harris County Justice Courts (16)

~550,000 general jurisdiction filings/yr

529,233 active cases pending today

Session Conundrum

• Court Business Intelligence System

• and what else??

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

Session Solution

• Reliability and Integrity of Case Records

• B.I. and Data Quality Management

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

0

250,000

500,000

750,000

1,000,000

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2010

Justice Court Cases with Suspect Data: 2003-10

Session Overview

• Business Intelligence and CourTools

• H.C. Court Business Intelligence system

• Data Quality as Court Business Intelligence

• Managing Data Quality for E-Case Records

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

What is Business Intelligence? • Statistical measures of the status and the performance trends

of a business

• The ability to apprehend the interrelationships of presented facts in such a way as to guide action towards a desired goal

• Reports

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

What is Court Business Intelligence? • If we created a new northwest Harris county juvenile justice court for Class C offenses, how big

would its caseload be?

• How much will it cost us if the juror fee is increased from $6 to $40 per day from the second day on?

• How many low risk defendants are being detained prior to trial?

• How many disposed cases still have an open warrant filing?

• Why are there so many more cases on my docket than on Court 99’s?

• How much revenue came from referrals to a collections vendor, and how much of that revenue did the County retain?

• Are Harris County LEAs filing traffic citations equally within JP court precincts as promised?

• What’s the recidivism rate for first offense DWI defendants?

• Do defendants with court appointed attorneys receive the same justice as those with hired counsel?

• How many contempt hearings are held each month?

• And what’s the Average Time to Disposition for traffic cases in J.P. Court 4-1?

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

Reporting Problems

• Access to legacy data

– extracts, priorities, and repetitive costs

• Complexity of the data

• Consistency of the results

• Where is that report??

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

Reporting Solution

• A system wholly dedicated to the production, distribution and management of reports

• On-line, on-demand delivery of automated reports

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

CourTools

• “Top Ten” set of activity and performance measures from the NCSC (2005)

• Survey-driven measures – Access and Fairness, Effective Use of Jurors, Court

Employee Satisfaction

• Data-driven measures

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

CourTools

Statistical analysis of court case records

• Clearance Rates

• Time to Disposition

• Age of Active Pending Caseload

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

CourTools (KPIs)

Court Business Intelligence

Court Case Management vs. Court Business Intelligence

OLTP

operations

OLAP

analytics

automated data

transfers

On-Line Transaction Processing On-Line Analytical Processing

Court Case Management System

Court Business Intelligence System

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

Reporting Solution

• Court Case Management system is for clerks

• Court Business Intelligence system is for judges, court managers, and policy makers throughout the justice community

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

Tactics

• Private-to-Public approach (2007-11)

–Data warehousing (with MS SQL Server DBMS)

• Data-driven (bottom up) approach

– No expensive (top down) reporting software (e.g.,

PerformancePoint, Business Objects, Cognos, Hyperion, etc.)

– Reports produced instead with SRSS (SQL Reporting

Services)

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

ETL

Justice Data Warehouse

CMS

Midnight 3:40 a.m. 4:30 a.m.

Star

Schema

Database

4:30:20 a.m.

Data

Cube

Staging Area

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

Court Business Intelligence System

System Features • Replication of case records into a reporting

database system (refreshed nightly)

• Insulates OLTP from OLAP (system performance)

• Standardized business logic (formulas)

• Re-useable dimensions (e.g., Offense Category, Defendant Status, Attorney Type, etc.)

• Self-aggregating

• Creates a history of measures (trend analysis)

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

More Features

• Supports 4/8 court divisions (73/99 courts)

• Automated, on-demand, web-based

• Interactive – Sortable

– Variable parameters (reusable dimensions)

– Drill-through to case records

– Export to Acrobat or Excel

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

Caseload Report (1978)

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

15 filters for drill-down analysis

Reusable dimensions

Reusable dimensions

(Offense Category)

www.ccl.hctx.net

DWI Recidivism: Future Cases by Defendant Age

garbage in, garbage out

Reconsidering CourTools Measure #6: Reliability & Integrity of Case Files

How quickly can the (paper) file be retrieved? Does it meet

established standards for completeness and accuracy?

Who does what to ensure the accuracy and completeness of case files when paper records are no longer available?

How do we measure the accuracy and completeness of an electronic case file?

How do your case records look on the Internet?

Completeness and Accuracy

• Missing data

– Judgment entered with no Judgment Date

– Data validation solutions

• Erroneous data

– Trial date entered for the distant future

– 42 different spellings for Baytown, Texas

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

Completeness and Accuracy

• Superfluous metadata

– 702 event codes; 277 never used

• Conflicting data

– Inactive cases with jail status

• Problem indicators

– Active case with no future setting

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

Data Quality and Court Management

• Obstructs the timely disposition of cases

• Creates liability from “lost defendants”

• Distorts court management reports

• Exposes our problems on the Internet

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

Proactive Data Quality Management

• Activity Logs Exception Reports

– 45 queries for examining the accuracy, completeness and status of individual court case records

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

Docket and Caseload Exceptions

Proactive Data Quality Management

• Exception Reports

– “Suspect Data” exceptions

– Performance & status exceptions

• User’s Guide

– Kind, Description, Risks, Possible Causes, Fixes

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

Proactive Data Quality Management

• Exception Reports

• User’s Guide

• Trend Analysis

• Report Distribution to Judges

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

“Suspect Data” Reporting in the Justice Courts

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

0

150,000

300,000

450,000

600,000

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

What you measure affects behavior

You can’t manage what you can’t measure

Data Quality Management for Courts

NCSC Notes from the Field

March, 2009

Data Information Knowledge Decisions

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.