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A. Purpose
The purpose of the Electronic Court Project is to convert the entire litigation record system from paper media to electronic media. This Project exceeds electronic filing, which is the current focus of most Ohio courts. The main focus of the Electronic Court Project is to replace paper case files with electronic case files. Electronic filing is merely the means by which documents are placed into the electronic case files.
B. Benefits
1. Delays inherent in paper systems are eliminated. The Court opens approximately 15,000 paper files every year. With a staff of 30 people, the problem of misplaced files and misfiled documents cannot be avoided. Also, only one person can use a paper file at any one time. With electronic files, the file is always where it should be in the computer and every document is automatically assigned a document number and can be located even if placed in the wrong electronic file. Any number of people can view an electronic file simultaneously.
2. Storage space is greatly reduced in an electronic Court. The Supreme Court prescribes the number of years that certain files must be preserved. The minimum number of years is 2 for criminal minor misdemeanor cases and 25 years for serious criminal cases. Some records must be kept permanently. Due to lack of storage space, the Clerk must purge records yearly and physically sort and move approximately 15,000 paper files per year to make space for the new year’s files. The Court has spent up to $2,000.00 in one year to safely destroy paper files. The expense, manpower, and storage space problems are totally eliminated by use of electronic records. Also, all records can be retained indefinitely and for the same period of time.
3. Use of electronic records enhances public access to the Court. If any litigant or member of the public wants information about a case, they must come to the courthouse to view the paper file or must make a written request to the Clerk to mail or fax the requested information to him or her and pay copy charges. The delay and the charges are eliminated with electronic records. The electronic images of most documents are viewable over the Internet.
4. Security of records is greatly enhanced. Any natural or man-made disaster such as fire, flood or terrorist act, would completely destroy paper records. Electronic records can be easily and inexpensively duplicated and preserved.
5. Redundancy in data entry is greatly reduced in the Criminal/Traffic Division. The Court serves nine law enforcement agencies and seven Mayor’s Courts. In 2002, the Court received 16,428 traffic charges. The police officer hand writes each charge on a traffic ticket and give the ticket a police clerk to enter into the police department’s computer case management system. In all municipalities other than Garfield Heights, the police clerk delivers the traffic ticket to the Mayor’s Court Clerk who enters it into a separate case management system. The Mayor’s Court Clerk delivers the traffic ticket to the Municipal Court Clerk who enters it into the Court’s case management system. This means that a single traffic charge is entered into three separate computer systems. In Garfield Heights where there is not Mayor’s Court, the police officer hand writes the ticket. A police records clerk enters the ticket into the police case management system and delivers it to the Municipal Court where it is re-entered. By transmitting information electronically to the Municipal Court, the redundancy is eliminated.
C. Vendor
The Court vendor was Henschen & Associates when the Court decided to pursue an electronic court. The vendor demonstrated that it had the appropriate staff, knowledge, experience and commitment to design and implement the electronic records system and was retained for that purpose.
D. Cost of Implementation
The entire cost of design and implementation of the system is paid for through court costs assessed against litigants for technology implementation. No taxpayer dollars are being spent for implementation.
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