California Courts Launch Redesigned Website

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Page 3

California Courts Launch Redesigned Website

By a MetNews Staff Writer

The Administrative Office of the Courts said yesterday it had re-launched its website.

The new web address is www.courts.ca.gov. The site has been significantly redesigned for the first time in more than a decade, the AOC said in a release, and the launch represents the first significant redesign of the site.

The new website will improve navigation for the more than 800,000 users who visit the site monthly, the release said. Improvements have been made to the California Online Self-Help Center, which receives more than 250,000 visits each month from self-represented litigants, social service agencies, and attorneys throughout California.

Last year, more than 7 million Judicial Council forms were downloaded from the site, the AOC reported. “The new site represents an effort to provide the public and the legal community with greater access to judicial branch information and resources,” according to the release, with enhanced multimedia and video, the introduction of Web 2.0 technologies such as YouTube and Twitter, and new page designs to allow users to more quickly scan and locate information.

“The Web is the electronic face of the court system,” Administrative Director of the Courts William C. Vickrey said. “The public’s trust and confidence in the court system are shaped significantly by the quality and breadth of services we are able to deliver on the Web. The new website represents a new beginning for delivering quality online content to the public, attorneys, and justice partners throughout the state.”

In addition to the redesign of the California Courts website, the AOC said, many trial courts across the state are adopting new web templates provided by the AOC to help encourage more people to make use of online resources rather than making unnecessary trips to local trial courts. The new designs can be seen on the websites of the Lake, Humboldt, Sonoma, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Merced, and Riverside superior courts, all of which may be accessed via links on the AOC site.