Hyperlinks, SSA eCARs and CM/ECF

Benefits of Electronic Documents

• Portability – easy to transfer and store• Reproduction – easy to replicate• Search – find what you need• Copy and Paste – use what you need• Hyperlinks – link to other resources

Hyperlinks

• Internal Links– Table of Contents– Footnotes, endnotes, cross references

• External Links– Other CM documents– Research links

[Sample Document]

Sample PACER Docket Report

eCAR docket entry in CM/ECF

Complete Administrative Record

Administrative Process Documents

Jurisdictional Documents & Notices

Disability-Related Development

Medical Evidence (Part 2 of 3)

Image quality of evidence

• SSA-ODAR receives medical evidence of varying image qualities

• The following slides are from one exhibit

Exhibit 10F – a sampling of pages

Exhibit 10F continued

Exhibit 10F continued

Possible Barriers to Links

• Policy Debate• Deny Links Option • PDF/A

Policy Debate

• Issues: (Dir. 9-058, May 22, 2009)

–Persistence of data–Endorsement of service

• Debate:–Input solicited (Dir. 10-056 April 30 2010)

–Response (email May 8, 2010)Adobe Acrobat

Document

Adobe Acrobat Document

Adobe Acrobat Document

“Endorsement” Debate • We should be enabling, not disabling, features of our electronically filed

documents.• Research hyperlinks make electronic documents more useful. • If judges do not use research hyperlinks, we have no way to lead and encourage.• No one is required to use the research links.• A reader is still free to find the document on any research service. • There are two alternative research link creation programs. There is no exclusive

endorsement.• We did not worry about endorsement with:

– Westlaw or Lexis cites for unpublished opinions – West product citations for books -- Fed. Supp., Fed. Rptr., F.R.D. – PDF standard for e-filed documents.– WordPerfect format for draft orders or jury instructions.

• A policy resting, even in part, fear of the unfamiliar and new is unfortunate.

DenyLinks option in CM/ECF

From CM/ECF Application Configuration Guide District Release 4.1

PDF/A

CM/ECF 5 Release Notes: PDF/A Implementation A new version of pdfcheck will be created to allow the rejection of any document that is not a PDF/A. Courts can determine when to implement this new check, and when it is implemented, users will not be able to upload non-PDF/A documents.

PDF/A does not currently permit hyperlinks, but PDF/A 2.0 may permit links.

Adobe Acrobat Document

Questions?

• Robin.Marquis@ssa.gov

• Pat.Herbst@ssa.gov

• Katherine.D.Wisz@ssa.gov

• David.Nuffer@utd.uscourts.gov

Hyperlinks, SSA eCARs and CM/ECF