The lack of such functionality means that courts have no appropriate mechanism for recording and managing reopened cases.  This creates a serious problem for:

• case management (tracking of active cases)
• workload analysis
• caseload reporting (undercounts)
• time-standards and other court-performance monitoring (artifically prolonged case durations)
• the development of appropriate audit standards by the Best Practices Committee
• identification and aggregating of family-related cases for management of those matters in Unified Family Court

This request seeks to enhance Superior Court Management Information System (SCOMIS) to allow cases to be reopened.  “Case reopen” is defined as the reactivation of a case following resolution, for recording and management of additional court activity.  A case may have zero to many re-openings.  Each life cycle may involve different attorneys, a new filing date, new/ different issues, new court activity, and a different case flow management track.  A reopened case is pending, and must again be managed through the case cycle from filing to closure.  All previous history must be retained intact, and information from the new cycle appended.

Superior Court cases will correctly reflect the multiple lifecycles that cases can go through.  When needed, a modification will appear with the same case number and title as the resolved case to which it is associated.  The reopened case’s filing date, dispositional information, and accounting data will be recorded and retained separately, the reopened case’s data will not overwrite or displace the original case's data.  This solution will allow an integrated and accurate picture of cases, will facilitate appropriate case management of modifications, and will allow accurate reporting on workload, caseload, pending matters, and time-standards performance.

The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) would design and implement a means to file and manage a “reopened” superior court case with its own lifecycle and to have that “reopened” case associated with one or more previously resolved case(s).  All JIS applications would recognize the association of the “reopened” cases to the previously resolved case(s).

AOC would modify SCOMIS to enable to court to reopen superior court cases and to maintain them through their lifecycle.  This would affect about 90% of SCOMIS modules, as well affecting other JIS systems, including: JIS, JABS, JCS, JRS, ACORDS, CAPS, Electronic Disposition, and the Data Warehouse.