February 1, 2024
Anytime availability for users is one of the most important reasons to improve court case management systems and add e-filing. Lawyers and self-represented litigants can access a case management system and e-filing directly from their offices or homes, avoiding driving or public transportation. Paper reduction and improved data sharing are other reasons as well.
The Pew Charitable Trusts’ report How to Make Civil Courts More Open, Effective, and Equitable emphasizes that “Court staff, users, and the community benefit from transparent and effective administration of justice, and to achieve that, courts need to modernize along three core principles: openness, effectiveness, and equity.
Some state courts recently modernized their case management systems:
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina upgraded to a new digital case management system in October 2023, which included court records that are searchable online and an e-filing system for attorneys and self-represented litigants. According to the North Carolina Judicial Branch, “1.39 million sheets of paper have been saved during the eCourts pilot phase by transitioning four counties to electronic filing and records access over a six-month period.”
Arkansas has been improving its CMS for a long time. They started 6 years ago by building their own system, which also saved money. Last year Arkansas courts received $70 million to upgrade the system and “engaged with multiple vendors and pieced together its own custom, cloud-based system.” The state court administrator said that they received funds from the American Rescue Plan.
The city of New Orleans started replacing their computer systems to improve data sharing between law enforcement agencies, courts, and citizens. The funds used for this project came from an authorization of $30 million from the American Rescue Plan Act funding for the Justice Tech Modernization Program in late 2022.
The Ohio Supreme Court accepted grant applications in the spring of 2023 to support local courts in the implementation of technology-based projects. The funds are to support projects that can improve services to the public, access to justice, and transparency. One court that received money was the Circleville Municipal Court. They will use the funds to upgrade their 17-year-old case management system with an e-filing system, which will make information and documents readily available. The Guernsey County Court of Common Pleas was also granted funds to replace its 30-year-old system.
Is your court improving its case management system? Email us at Knowledge@ncsc.org or call 800-616-6164 and let us know. Follow the National Center for State Courts on Facebook, X, LinkedIn, and Vimeo. For more Trending Topic posts, visit ncsc.org/trendingtopics or subscribe to the LinkedIn newsletter.