U.S. District Court Calendars on the Internet
By Ronnie Honey, Chief Deputy Clerk of Court
WebCal is the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona’s new Web calendar system that provides civil and criminal case calendar information for any nonsealed hearing, conference, or trial. This system is currently in a beta test mode, with Chief Judge McNamee and Judge Rosenblatt participating in Phoenix, and Judge Bury participating in Tucson. The beta test phase has been very successful, and we will soon begin to incrementally bring the rest of the district judges’ calendars online with a goal of having them all available by Spring of this year. WebCal for the magistrate judges presents some unique challenges due to the unexpected and rapidly changing nature of their calendars and will be addressed in a Phase II development effort later this year.
Court staff strive to assure that the calendar information appearing on the Web is accurate and as current as possible. Updates to the calendars are entered by the courtroom deputy clerks and are propagated to the Internet every 30 minutes. Calendar information for the current week is always available, and information for the following week is posted by noon on the Friday of the current week.
WebCal offers court calendar information in a variety of views such as date/time, judge, case name or divisional office. Detailed information about the hearing is available by double clicking on a specific calendar event. The search capability is very flexible, allowing users to query by any word that is contained in the text of the calendar, such as case number, party name, attorney name, judge name, or type of hearing. The information is presented in a simple, straightforward way and can be easily printed.
While the current fax/mail/phone procedures for attorney notification of hearings and calendar changes will continue, WebCal is a great way to quickly confirm that a hearing is on the court’s calendar. It is also a good way to check a particular judge’s calendar, or to query other scheduled matters of interest. To access WebCal, visit our Web site at www.azd.uscourts.gov and click on the “Court Calendars” link. “Today’s Calendar” is the first display of calendar information that will appear.
WebCal is easy to use and very flexible. But why take our word for it? See for yourself at www.azd.uscourts.gov. And while you’re there, please submit any comments or suggestions you may have about the product by clicking on the “Your Comments” link.