The word litigation is synonymous with mountains of case files, tons of transcripts, stacks of docket books and loads of evidence. With caseloads only increasing, what does a courthouse do when faced with the responsibilities of storing and maintaining all of this material? Whether it’s the federal, state, or local level, courthouses and agencies throughout the U.S. judicial system all are dealing the same challenge: caseloads continue to pile up but courthouse storage space remains the same. As a solution, more facilities are looking to maximize storage capacity and materials management with custom designed, high-density storage systems as well as other paperless options.
Filing and Storage Options
"In today’s economic environment facilities are hesitant to expand with new construction or a large amount of employee hires," comments Christina Dube, marketing communications manager at Kardex Remstar, Westbrook, Maine, a division of the Kardex Group based in Switzerland. "With our customers we’re seeing two things; facilities are looking to maximize the space they currently have and they’re looking for ways to increase employee productivity. Our solutions fit nicely into both of these areas."
She points out that courthouse’s today have to manage multiple types of files and records as well as tickets, traffic violations, marriage certificates, hunting and fishing licenses, etc. "All of these items can become overwhelming to manage in a manual storage system made up of file cabinets and shelving. More and more courthouses are looking to products such as the Kardex Remstar Lektriever Vertical Carousel storage systems to increase performance, ensure safe and secure storage and improve worker ergonomics."
E-Filing Trends
E-filing is also helping provide another option for storage solutions. "One of the biggest trends we are seeing in the courts is a move to electronic filing," adds Anna Stratton, division director, Southwest Solutions Group’s Information Management Solutions (IMS) in Addison, Texas. "In Texas for example, there is a mandate (Docket 12-9208) for county courts to stop filing and accepting paper documents to reduce the costs associated with printing and storing paper. Many courts, including the Harris County District Clerk’s Office, are scanning paper files to electronic records to avoid managing a hybrid system of both paper and electronic documents, to create a truly paperless system," she explains.
Archiving Solutions
Courts are also becoming more concerned about emergency management and protecting their digital assets in the event of a disaster. "The evolution of storage technology, with such additions as Cloud storage, have many options available to them for storing their data, but regulatory compliance and long-term data retention (DR) requirements require archive storage that provides data permanence, authenticity, longevity, portability, fast access with a low total cost of ownership," comments Chris Carr, CEO, Alliance Storage Technologies, Inc. (ASTI), Colorado Springs, Colo. "These requirements are met only with professional archive solutions such as the ASTI Archive Appliance."
He points out that courts are more concerned than ever about disaster recovery that provides high availability, combined with meeting regulatory compliance and long-term data retention requirements. "Courts have selected the Archive Appliance Replication solution as integral part of their DR strategy to meet their regulatory compliance and long-term data retention needs, with an increased focus on high-availability and disaster recovery solutions that protect their digital assets."
Sangamon County Circuit Clerk’s Office, the official keeper of all court records for the Seventh Judicial Court of Sangamon County in Springfield, Ill., recently installed ASTI’s Network Attached Storage (NAS) archiving solution to meet their commitment to protect court documents and provide immediate data access for their constituents. "The Alliance product line offered everything we were looking for, including great performance for our users," reports Tony Libri, Sangamon County Circuit Clerk.
More Efficient Solutions
When Lake County Court House in Painesville, Ohio, began an expansion on their office, they chose Spacesaver’s Rotary Storage to create a functional file and records storage area. With approximately 6,000 new files each year, they needed a system that would consolidate all of their current files, with sufficient space for the future. Because each rotary storage system allows for file access from two sides, the court was able to create a more efficient office space.
"We sometimes have as many as eight to ten people pulling records at one time," says Clerk of Courts at Lake County Court House, Lynn Mazeika. "The rotary systems allow us to keep the records close to us and provide almost unlimited access."
With use of these many multi-usage storage systems, software and scanning solutions, users can achieve the goals that are priorities for agencies operating with limited budgets and resources: consolidate staff, equipment and files, enhance control and inventory, and reduce expenses.
Here’s a sampling of some space-saving options currently on the market for the courts.
STORAGE PRODUCTS
Evidence Storage Lockers
Preferred by many legal and law enforcement agencies and firms throughout North America, Spacesaver evidence lockers are said to offer the utmost security for evidence preservation as well as multiple feature options. Choose from pass thru or non-pass thru lockers, with keyless access to each locker and a variety of locker sizes. Some evidence lockers have even been designed specifically for cold storage. Guilford County Correctional Facility, N.C. (pictured), was also able to install a series of evidence lockers for better storage management.
www.spacesaver.com, 920.563.6362
A Stable of Solutions
A global leader in both mobile and stationary storage systems, including movable carriages, fixed shelving, cabinets and more, Montel offers products that cover a wide variety of applications. Large-scale, high-density solutions like rolling Mobilex carriages optimize shelving of records and case files; Aetnastak cantilever shelving is said to be the industry standard for law book and deed book shelving; evidence lockers provide high-security short- or long-term management of critical evidence storage.
www.montel.com, 1.877.935.0236
Deed & Docket Book Shelving
High-capacity shelving provides efficient storage for courthouse deed and docket book storage areas. Designed to maximize every inch of space, these high-capacity storage systems compact deed and docket books into approximately half the space by replacing static access aisles with one or two movable aisles. The shelves are equipped with rollers to make deed and docket books easy to access and to minimize the space between shelves.
www.southwestsolutions.com/legal, 1.800.803.1083
Evidence Lockers
When it comes to storing critical evidence in courthouses, police stations and other high-security settings, you don’t want to take any chances. With Montel’s dependable, heavy-duty digital and mechanical evidence lockers provides a number of solutions. The two types of evidence locker control access in different ways. With the mechanical lockers, anyone can deposit evidence—but once the button lock is pressed, it can only be recovered by someone who has a master key. With the digital lockers, the fingerprint security system means that both deposit and retrieval can only be performed by pre-authorized individuals whose prints have already been entered into the system.
www.montel.com, 1.877.935.0236
Rotating Shelving
The Lektriever ELF is a system of shelves that rotates up and down, delivering the items via the shortest path. The operator simply enters the shelf number, and the system automatically delivers the required item. Bringing the stored item directly to the operator increases overall performance, decreasing time spent traveling and searching for the item, increasing worker productivity and reducing worker fatigue. The unit can be constructed right up to the ceiling, maximizing floor to truss space and providing increased filing density. One Lektriever Vertical Carousel unit provides the filing capacity of 17 standard four drawer filing cabinets in 70% less floor space. This allows courthouses to turn previously occupied storage space into additional work space.
www.KardexRemstar.com,
1.800.639.5805
Scanning Services
High speed copying is an essential element of document management. Merritt Scanning utilizes high-quality digital copiers to meet critical deadlines and specializes in legal scanning, copying and courtroom graphics. The service digitizes all documents pertaining to a case into one database that can be easily located, accessed and shared. The company is experienced in the diverse needs of the legal industry and collaborates with clients to become part of their team in order to support all staff members and ensure powerful and accurate solutions are used in and out of the court room.
www.merrittgraphics.com,
1.800.344-4477
Document Scanning Services
The rising costs of processing, managing and storing court documents are driving the need for electronic filing (e-filing) solutions. Many courts are taking a proactive approach to e-filing and scanning active documents to lower processing and storage costs and improve services for customers.
www.southwestsolutions.com/ims, 1.800.803.1083
High-Density Mobile Storage
In court and correctional facilities, space is always at a premium. Increase your storage capacity with mobile shelving from Spacesaver, which is engineered to maximize useable space and provide a wide range of safety and security features. Recently the Guilford County Correctional Facility, N.C. (pictured), designed installed mechanical-assist high-density mobile systems to allow more space for inmate property storage. With the use of high-density mobile storage they were able to provide storage for more than 1,600 totes in the inmate property storage department, double the capacity that would have been available with conventional storage solutions.
www.spacesaver.com,
1.920.563.6362
Rotary Storage Systems
Spacesaver Rotary Storage Systems are a space-efficient and cost-effective alternative to lateral files, vertical files, or even small parts storage systems. Rotary Storage offers the same or greater capacity as conventional file cabinets in a fraction of the floor space. Choose single-sided access when using them in alcoves or against walls and panels. Choose double-sided access when using them as room dividers. Either approach is effective when you want a space-saving way to share storage between workstations. To rotate, simply depress the foot pedal and gently push. When not in use, files can be locked in the closed position, presenting a clean, uncluttered appearance.
www.spacesaver.com,
1.920.563.6362
Disaster Recovery Software
ASTI announced the enhanced replication features of the Archive Management Software (AMS), which is an integral component of its Archive Appliance and Archive Appliance Elite Solutions. These software features provide the flexibility for clients to strengthen their Disaster Recovery (DR) strategies by automating offsite backup while eliminating manual offsite backup processes, which can be error prone and very manually intensive. Simultaneously providing geographically dispersed archive data redundancy with reduced recovery times, users are provided more immediate access to critical data when disasters strike.
www.alliancestoragetechnologies.com, 719.593.7900
Filing Systems
ActivRAC, high-density filing systems from Spacesaver and distributed by Bradford Systems, are available in three different powered models and one mechanically-assisted manual model. ActivRAC is the appropriate solution for large-scale storage needs. ActivRAC resolves federal document storage issues for programs requiring several years of document retention and programs that generate substantial-sized files by providing the means to "warehouse" program documents in a smaller footprint than static configurations. All ActivRAC industrial solutions are reported to be durable, reliable and low maintenance. One-piece construction and cross bracing keeps wheel assemblies in exact alignment.
www.bradfordsystems.com, 1.800.696.3453
Archiving Solution
ASTI’s high-performance Elite Archive Appliance is an all-inclusive solution for managing and archiving data securely and safely for extended periods in an unaltered format that can be easily retrieved and randomly accessed by users. The solution consists of the Storage Management System (the front-end server system with RAID that acts as a performance cache for the archive) and field proven data archiving libraries based on regulatory compliant true Write-Once-Read-Many UDO technology. The two are integrated by an archive management software application that provides all the capabilities necessary archiving data.
www.alliancestoragetechnologies.com, 719.593.7900
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