My team learned that our court-appointed attorneys working on federal cases were facing unexpected sources of frustrations: the process for monthly invoice submissions was so out of date that it barely functioned on modern browsers, and the check by mail process was an unpopular practice as well as a burden on the Treasury Dept. Many attorneys routinely delayed entering their hours for days or weeks and in some extreme cases, their hours went unsubmitted for years. The result was staggering. Millions of dollars in unpaid time was being left unclaimed annually. And despite a growing backlog, the process was not improving.

A modern, intuitive, user experience.

With Public Defenders and Courts stakeholders at our side during the HCD design process, I developed a detailed set of responsive prototypes that utilized the US Web Design System (USWDS) and was ultimately built with Angular and Material UI. Originally designed just for public defenders and law firms working federal court cases, the simplicity and utility of the account creation and invoice submission process allowed us to re-strategize and name it the US Courts Vendor Management System and provide it to all service providers such as moving companies, plumbers, electricians, etc.

We had several rounds of remote user testing and recorded all sessions. User satisfaction was at record high for Courts applications with an average customer satisfaction score of 95%. We implemented an online account creation process where Attorneys in the past had to email pdf forms to an administrator to get accounts setup. We created an easy way to upload large CSV files for ingestion into the invoice table, alleviating tedious data entry of backlogged hours. We shortened the time required to enter individual line items on time entries from 45-50 seconds to under 10 seconds. And one of the biggest improvements is that we got rid of the paper check process from the Treasury Dept. and implemented a secure, electronic payment system sending funds directly to law firms.