A Common Information Space in Criminal Courts: Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) Case Management Systems

The Los Angeles County criminal courts process about 600,000 cases per year, more than any other state court in the United States. This complex task is facilitated by large-scale, distributed case management computer-based systems. This paper presents results of a case study of computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) systems in the criminal courts and how their implementation changes work practices. We studied the Trial Court Information System (TCIS), a case management system adopted for Los Angeles Criminal Courts, and computer-aided legal research (CALR) systems. We show how the work culture of judges and court clerks has an impact on attitudes regarding computer usage. Our results indicate that the use of TCIS to generate minute orders and reports has improved efficiency while creating a sense of deskilling for some court clerks. In addition, there is a dichotomy of computer use by judges - some completely integrate computers into work while others reject them.