The Indiana Courts website (www.IN.gov/judiciary) was ranked number three in a list of the top ten court websites in the world, Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard announced today.

“The Indiana judiciary has made technology advancement a priority, and this extends to our public website as well,” said Chief Justice Shepard. “We are quite pleased to be recognized as a leader in court website development.” The Indiana Courts website was accessed nearly eight million times from January to June, a thirty-four percent increase over the same period in 2004.

The 2005 website award is presented by Justice Served, a California-based court consulting firm that has been reviewing court websites and producing a top ten list for the past seven years. In announcing the winners, Justice Served noted, “It's not easy to win a place in this listing, and all the winners this year deserve high praise for their commitment to superior public service.” The Indiana Courts site was commended for including content geared toward specific audiences, the online child support calculator, posting appellate opinions, and streaming video.

Technical development of the Indiana Courts website is overseen by the Division of State Court Administration and the Judicial Technology and Automation Committee (JTAC). The web team includes two full-time and two part-time employees at the JTAC office. In addition, many of the interactive web applications available on the site, including Attorney Records Online and the Clerk's Online Docket, were developed by Appellate Court Technology staff housed at the Division.

“This is an achievement we can all share, because the success of our website depends primarily on the efforts of the people who contribute its most important feature — content ,” said Lindsey Borschel, JTAC's Web Coordinator.

To view the entire list of Top Ten websites, including past winners, visit http://justiceserved.com/top10sites.cfm.