At last week’s Carroll County Council meeting it was learned that the two Carroll County courts and the clerk’s office plan to implement a new online court case management system on April 1. Many questions arose about the system were left unanswered at the meeting. Carroll Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Smith agreed to give a brief overview of the system for the public to better understand the goal of the project. The following are the questions posed to the judge and his responses. Q: What information will be put on-line? A: Initially, the Chronological Case Summary (CCS) will be available in digital format as the official record. The CCS summary of action taken in a case listed in chronological order. The system has the potential to include the actual orders of the court at some future date with the orders linked to the CCS entries. The State of Indiana is not providing this service at this time. The calendars for the court will be maintained on the system but will not be available online. Q: When will the information go on-line? A: If we are able to go ahead with the planned training, the court will begin using the system on April 1, 2010. Only new entries will be entered into the digital format. Entries on the CCS made prior to April 1 will not be transferred to digital format. Q: Will on-line information be available to the public? A: The current timeline has on-line information available to the public via the Internet on or before July 1, 2010.

Q: Are you developing the same process for circuit court?

A: The Carroll Superior Court, the Carroll Circuit and the clerk will be implementing the Odyssey system. Q: What is the cost to the taxpayers for the new process? This would include computers, software, system requirements, training, etc. A: The table from Judicial Technology and Automation Committee (JTAC) provides information regarding costs. The county is responsible for the hardware costs. The only additional workstations will be computers for public access.

It will be necessary to upgrade 6 to 8 computers to provide the processing speed necessary for the software to work. The older computers that are replaced will be used for the public access computers.

The computers being replaced were old and slow and needed to replaced soon in any event. The installation of the new computers, local area networking and maintenance of the equipment will be the responsibility of the county but for the most part, these are expenses already being incurred with the present system.

The software, initial and annual licensing fees, web hosting and training will provided by the State of Indiana. Q: Who will benefit from the new process? A: The courts, clerk’s office, prosecutor’s office and the sheriff’s department will all benefit from the new system. Attorneys and parties in court cases will be able to check the status of their case online. Q: Will this eliminate books in the clerk’s office? Will information no longer be available except on-line? A: The clerk will have to answer this question. Unlike the courts, the clerk has a computerized system in place.

It is my understanding that Odyssey will replace the computerized account system in the clerk’s office. I do know that the Records of Judgments and Orders (RJO) will continue to be maintained in hard copy. It is my understanding that the clerk will have a public terminal available.