Judicial Council adopts new IT grant scoring model and awards $12.5M to 32 court projects

The Judicial Council's Technology Committee described a revised approach to awarding IT modernization grants that ranks projects by scored criteria and emphasizes collaboration and statewide impact. David Slayton and Judge Maria Hernandez explained that, from 149 proposals requesting nearly $73 million, the committee recommended funding 32 projects with the available $12.5 million so that highest-ranked projects are fully funded rather than spreading partial awards widely.

The distribution prioritizes three areas: cyber and information security (24 projects, about $3.27M), case-management improvements (10 projects, about $6.41M), and IT infrastructure (12 projects, about $2.1M), with collaborative proposals helping small and rural courts adopt shared solutions. "Our new model ensures that courts can fully deliver high impact projects instead of stretching limited dollars across too many partially funded efforts," the committee said. The council approved the allocation and endorsed the scoring/collaboration approach; a small number of projects are on a waitlist to receive funding if additional revenue becomes available.