About Our Customers

Minnesota

Minnesota Supreme Court and Court of Appeals

About the Courts

Minnesota has one Court of Appeals and a Supreme Court. The Court of Appeals receives approximately 2000 to 2400 cases per year. The Supreme Court receives about 800 cases per year with approximately 40% of those accepted for further review.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals began in November 1, 1983 and reviews final decisions of the trial courts, state agencies and local governments. Exceptions, which go directly to the Minnesota Supreme Court, are appeals from the Minnesota Tax Court, the Minnesota Workers' Compensation Court of Appeals, first-degree murder cases and statewide election contests. The Supreme Court directly receives attorney and judge disciplinary cases from the Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board and the Board on Judicial Standards. As the error-correcting court, the Court of Appeals handles most of the appeals, which allows the Minnesota Supreme Court to spend time resolving difficult constitutional and public policy cases. Court of Appeals' decisions are the final ruling in about 95 percent of the appeals filed. Typically, about five percent of the court's decisions are accepted by the Minnesota Supreme Court for further review. As part of the Court of Appeals’ effort to expedite justice and to make access to the appellate system less burdensome and expensive, the court's 19 judges sit in three-judge panels and travel to locations throughout Minnesota to hear oral arguments.

LT Court Tech Implementation

LT Court Tech customized and installed C-Track for Minnesota Supreme Court and Court of Appeals in 2003. Some of the features included dynamic docket entries, data-driven document generation, and a highly customizable rules engine. In addition, C-Track was integrated with the state bar’s attorney registration system and the judge registration system using IBM’s MQ series. In 2004 they added opinion processing including an automated opinion release function and justice voting. Also, special “My Cases” screens for justices and judges were created to view information on their cases and calendars. In 2005 C-Track provided real-time integration with the trial courts, allowing users to select the data they needed to create a new appellate case, along with potential conflict reporting and statistical reporting. At the same time the C-Track Public Access component was implemented.

 

Chief Justice Magnuson says in his State of the Judiciary Address, June 17, 2008: “In the span of just two decades, Minnesota's information systems have leapfrogged more than a century, from a time where physical pieces of paper were hand-delivered from place to place, to a time when case records are updated in court-in real time; case histories are available online in a second or two; and one can toggle back and forth between multiple documents from a laptop on the bench or in chambers.”

 

Minnesota Supreme Court