The judicial system is overburdened for a number of reasons, and greater efficiency is a must if court systems are to achieve their important objectives.

Technology and openness to all that it offers is a key solution, something that was tried, tested, and proven during the COVID pandemic,c which closed courthouses and law offices around the nation. Along with technology, improvements can be made by reexamining their orthodoxies about how things should be done based on decades of “that’s how we’ve always done it.”

This is a matter of importance to judges, lawyers, plaintiffs, defendants, and numerous others whose lives are impacted directly or indirectly when either the civil or criminal justice systems are inefficient, cumbersome, costly, confusing, slow, and even inaccessible. If only we had an example of at least one judge who is trying to do something about it. But wait …

Listen to my interview with the Hon. Scott Schlegel, who presides over criminal, civil, and domestic matters in Louisiana’s 24th Judicial District Court in Jefferson Parish. Judge Schlegel was elected to the bench in 2013 and quickly earned a reputation as a modern judge using technology to bring his court into the digital age, even before the pandemic forced the change on other jurists. He partnered with tech companies to develop efficiency tools like chatbots and online forms software. He launched courtonline.us and onlinejudge.us to consolidate his processes for the public. Judge Schlegel has received numerous awards and accolades, like the National Center for State Courts’ 26th Annual William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence. He was the American Bar Association’s 2021 Legal Rebel. And he received the Fastcase 50 Award for his innovative approaches to the administration of justice. Before becoming a judge, he was a prosecutor and litigator. Judge Schlegel graduated with honors from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.

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Tom Hagy
Litigation Enthusiast and
Host of the Emerging Litigation Podcast
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FILED UNDER: Complex Litigation | Legal Operations + Procedural Law | MassTorts + Class Actions​​
TAGS: Emerging Litigation & Risk | Judges | Legal Research & Writing | Trial