Announcing the 2009 Top Ten Court Website Awards
The JUSTICE SERVED® Top 10 Court Website Awards for 2009 have arrived!!! The winners are chosen from nearly 3,000 court websites worldwide, a substantial and surprising drop in the total number of sites available compared to last year. With economic cutbacks and reduced hours of operation, check out how these courts are ramping up their online content to meet the challenge. We extend thanks and congratulations to all the winners for their innovation, creativity and superb examples of Internet excellence. Click on the links below to see 11 years of current and past winners, our evaluation criteria and check out our Serving Justice blog for further commentary about this year's competition.
Grab our Annual Top Ten Awards postcard. PDF format - allow time for page to load.
Evaluation Criteria

SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF ORANGE www.occourts.org/ Why do California superior courts consistently make our list? Because they are full service operations, and it makes great sense to put these services online. Orange County is a first time winner, but they deserve top honors for their terrific organization and navigation, including a handy “how do I” pull-down menu and ready access to e-content. To round it off, all complex civil litigation must be processed online.

COLORADO STATE JUDICIAL BRANCH www.courts.state.co.us Another first-time winner, Colorado recently revamped their site using extensive public and staff outreach to determine what to include, resulting in significant improvements. E-court functionality is front and center with easy reading contrast and great navigation.

STATE COURT OF CHATHAM COUNTY GEORGIA www.statecourt.org From citizen access terminals to WiFi in the courthouse, this court gets it. The site is chock-full with e-dockets, e-tickets, e-fines and even e-probation. As early pioneers of streaming video, it’s no wonder they are a 3-peat winner.

SINGAPORE SUBORDINATE COURTS www.subcourts.gov.sg It’s hard to find something this 3-time winner doesn’t offer online. Highlights include e-ADR, improved traffic case management, and a virtual international judicial think tank called E-Justice Judges’ Corridor. Wow!

SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SANTA CLARA www.sccsuperiorcourt.org This 2003 winner does it all, but has particularly useful restraining and protective order content, courthouse location information and multiple language support.

COURTS SERVICE OF IRELAND www.courts.ie This international offering provides services in six languages, online payments, index of judgments and court calendars online with a twist — they’re readable on PDAs.

IOWA JUDICIAL BRANCH www.judicial.state.ia.us Iowa is back in the winner’s circle with a full array of online services including dockets, payments and jury services.

SPOKANE COUNTY DISTRICT COURT www.spokanecounty.org/districtcourt Limited jurisdictions are truly the “people’s court” and Spokane offers online payments, traffic postponements, traffic “mitigation” pleas and case/calendar indexes.

US DISTRICT COURT, DISTRICT OF MARYLAND www.mdd.uscourts.gov Federal district courts offer the same services, but Maryland’s simple, straightforward organization and presentation separates them from their colleagues.

ALABAMA’S LEGAL INFORMATION NETWORK www.alalinc.net This state legal portal leads to court-specific online content, but also serves as a valuable Internet resource for lawyer and litigant alike.

Check out the JUSTICE SERVED Top-10 Court Website Awards for 2009. Drop by to see 11 years of current, and past winners, including examples of excellent court Web applications and our evaluation criteria. Join Chris Crawford at the Court Technology Conference 2009 where he will co-present two education sessions: (1) on paper-on-demand, and (2) on court websites. He will also have a booth at space 409, so drop by and say hello in Denver, September 22-24. Justice Served is now collaborating with Humboldt Merchant Services to offer an exciting new service... Credit Card Processing for courts at well below market rates. Inquire for a free, no obligation quote. Chris Crawford was a featured guest for an online interview with Tampa Digital Studios about the Top 10 Court Website Awards in 2007. The interview can be found on YouTube. Remember, our free Newsletter and our new Serving Justice blog are only two of the improved e-services we offer. Please bookmark this site, explore and return often to see what's new in court management and technology for courts, justice agencies and their partners in technology!!