Virginia’s Need for a Uniform Case Management Solution

by Mark Wisinger, Analyst

Judicial systems exemplify the ideal environment for case management software, as legal cases require incident management at various stages in the litigation process — with a multitude of possible outcomes. Legal case data is the perfect example of where analytics can help judicial systems identify typical actions for specific cases, as well as guide policy decisions at the top level. Case management software has the ability to arm and empower judicial systems with management and analytic capabilities, however state governments have underexploited case management tools.

The state of Virginia, for example, has a state-wide case management system for circuit courts, but with limited reach and capability. In terms of reach, the case management system is used in a limited amount of courts, excluding the major circuit courts of Alexandria, Fairfax, and Virginia Beach. Virginia Beach ceased contributing to the system in 2009, opting to employ its own case management system. Alexandria and Fairfax previously implemented their own systems, with their own enhancements.

While Virginia Beach’s system doesn’t offer any significant enhancements over the state-wide solution, it solicits strong end-user participation. The state of Virginia’s disjointed case management systems only further inhibits the state from accounting and tracking legal cases across the entire state. Virginia Beach’s divergence from the existing state system indicates an implicit lack of confidence in the existing state-wide case management solution. The state of Virginia is clearly lacking a comprehensive case management solution.

States such as Virginia are ripe for case management solutions that allow them to perform efficient incident management at every stage of the litigation process. While the judicial system is a great fit for case management solutions, other state entities such as healthcare and law enforcement provide additional opportunity.

When approaching decision makers, product messaging should be tailored to the capability of each jurisdiction to apply custom features in a state-wide system over the current solutions employed, which offer little customization. And while certain features will gain more traction with one stakeholder over the other, executive-level personnel will be interested in analytics for policy decisions, while case managers are more interested in incident management capabilities. In Virginia, where multiple systems exist for fulfilling the same function, comprehensive solutions offer the ability to consolidate existing systems too.

State and local municipalities provide fertile grounds for COTS vendors that offer case management solutions, compared to the relatively more saturated federal market. If you need help identifying top decision-makers and opportunities within the state and local market or the federal landscape, contact immixGroup’s industry-leading Market Intelligence team today to learn about specific offices and contacts that have a pressing need for your solution.