[Openefm-development] Re: Counterclaim / OpenEFM

[Jim B. <be...@co...>]

Po,

	I don't mind the questions at all, and thank you for the help that you 
have provided over the EUG-LUG list.  We have been using FogBugz now 
since is was asking about it and found it to do everything I wanted.
	
	About our company;  FastLAW, a case management system for courts, has 
been our flagship product.  We have installed the system in several 
Native American tribal courts.  OpenEFM has brought us a fair amount of 
media and industry attention.  Various courts have or are using it, 
however we don't hear from all of them since we release it as open 
source.  We are currently focused on the next version of our portal 
application.  We have renamed it CourtPASS.  CourtPASS is designed to 
integrate with several EFMs which would represent courts.  OpenEFM is 
intended to be integrated with the court's case management system.  
This allows filing to be created at our portal ( or a competitors ), be 
sent to an EFM, and then eventually be placed in a court's case 
management system.

	You are correct that we have been focused on the legal process 
primarily for courts.  We hope to offer our portal services to law 
firms in the future.  OpenEFM is rather versatile and could easily be 
re-configured to work in a number of different industries.  It is 
really just a way of queueing up a bunch of XML based filings and 
requiring acceptance or rejection of the filings.  It does not 
necessarily need to be fully integrated with a back end system, 
although the back end integration delivers much greater value.

	If you are interested in the intersection of law and software then I 
would suggest taking a look at GJXDM.  GJXDM stands for the Global 
Justice XML Data Model.  There is a link to their site from our OpenEFM 
home page.  GJXDM is sponsored by the Department of Justice and is 
meant to be an XML foundation for all integrated justice projects, 
these include LEOs, courts, DAs, prisons, etc...  GLXDM is large and 
complex, possibly even overly so.  It does however have DoJ backing, so 
it is getting some traction.  The Second Generation Electronic Filings 
Standards (2GEFS) was developed by the state of California to handle 
court XML transactions.  It is much simpler to use and has superior 
documentation in my opinion.  However it is not intended to be used for 
non-court specific tasks.  There is also a link to this off of Open EFM 
home page.

Let me know if there is anything else I can answer for you, and 
remember that OpenEFM is an open source project, so depending your 
interest level you are free to get involved!

Thanks,
Jim

On Feb 14, 2005, at 2:00 PM, Po Petz wrote:

>
> Hi,
>
> I don't know if you remember but a couple months ago I helped you with 
> that perlcgi module question you posted to the EUG-LUG and I also 
> suggested FogBugz and a couple other packages when you asked about 
> issue tracking software.
>
> I had a few questions about Counterclaim that weren't readily apparent 
> looking at the website.  Mostly I was trying to distinguish what seems 
> to be the flagship product, OpenEFM, and the portal system, the Public 
> Access Server, which I presume works with the OpenEFM.  Is that even 
> remotely accurate or did I completely misunderstand the online 
> collateral?
>
> Also, Counterclaim seems focused on legal process automation tools 
> primarily for courts: filing, case management, recordkeeping.  This is 
> in contrast to law firms, whom I presume have money for fancy custom 
> document management systems.  But what about law enforcement groups?  
> Would OpenEFM work for those groups or is there a different specific 
> market for that segment as well?
>
> I hope you don't mind my questions.  For the past few years I've been 
> nurturing an interest in the intersection of law and software 
> technology.
>
> thanks,
> -po
>
>
Jim Beard
counterclaim.com, Inc
http://www.counterclaim.com
http://openefm.sourceforge.net
(800) 264-8145