The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's Administrative Office has been cited for being one of the first court systems in the United States to use the World Wide Web to make information available to the public. Government Technology , the leading magazine in the United States covering technology applications in the public sector, in its September 1995 issue, recognizes the AOPC for being progressive and economical in utilizing technology to disseminate information concerning the courts. The article describes how the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts has helped set the pace in adopting World Wide Web to expand its service to the public and the media to help clarify and keep current happenings within the state court system. Additionally, the Web page efficiently provides users with large downloads of data on a recurring basis.
Recurrent users utilize passwords and private keys to obtain and decrypt the data.
Future plans include providing synopses of Supreme Court cases and opinions on the Web page in an effort to make the cases more understandable and accessible, particularly to the media and the layman. Contrary to published reports, plans for putting entire case opinions on the Web page are still under study by court officials. As many Pennsylvanians know, this is not the state Supreme Court's first venture into the electronic age. Despite an extensive two-year study, efforts to similarly computerize the state's trial court criminal divisions remain on the drawing board until fully funded. When completed, that phase of the Judicial Computer Project will link all criminal courts in 67 counties in a statewide network.