CHARLOTTE, N.C. — An upgraded, cloud-based computer system is coming to Mecklenburg County courts on October 9, the director of the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts (NCAOC) announced Friday.
The system, which was supposed to be rolled out in 2021 and has faced numerous delays, is a statewide initiative costing North Carolina taxpayers $100 million, as WCNC Charlotte first reported in February.
Mecklenburg County, the fifth county in North Carolina to receive the new technology, was originally set to receive the system in May but saw the launch delayed because of issues at the initial four testing locations: Harnett, Johnston, Lee, and Wake counties.
Beginning Oct. 9, court records in Mecklenburg County will be searchable online at no-cost to the public, and attorneys and self-represented parties can file court documents electronically, according to the North Carolina Judicial Branch.
“This vital effort to transform our state courts and deliver digital access to the justice system for millions of North Carolinians continues to progress thanks to the tireless work of local officials and the legal community,” NCAOC Director Ryan Boyce said in the released statement Friday.
While the NCAOC estimates the system the system has saved an estimated 1.39 million sheets of paper during the initial four-county testing, the system has also been plagued with problems.
Paperwork has been delayed hours, attorneys and judges have experienced obstacles in obtaining case information, and rural county attorneys have had to rely on their own IT capabilities and infrastructure to navigate the system, WCNC Charlotte has been told previously.
Additionally, attorneys believe these problems have violated civil liberties with defendants spending longer times in jail than necessary. In May, a lawsuit was filed alleging hundreds of people were wrongfully detained in North Carolina as a result of the system.
CONTINUING COVERAGE:
- May 2023: New lawsuit alleges hundreds of people wrongfully detained in NC
- April 2023: 'Everybody is just frustrated' | Lawmaker closely monitoring troubled court software rollout
- Feb. 2023: 'It's kind of like the rapture' | Concerns ahead of changes at the courts
- March 2023: Amid NC technical issues, Mecklenburg County will wait longer to get new computer system for courts
- April 2023: 'It’s a disaster' | New computer system causing court delays, civil liberties violations
The software is designed and implemented by a company called Tyler Technologies, which has placed this software in communities across the country. WCNC Charlotte researched some previous deployments and learned it’s not always a smooth transition.
“It was a mess, to say the least," Chris Wanner, the head of the Lubbock Criminal Defense Lawyers Association in Lubbock, Texas, where the same new technology launched about two years ago, told WCNC Charlotte's Michelle Boudin earlier this year.
In Lubbock, attorneys too expressed concerned about clients being wrongfully held in jail because of glitches with the new system.
"Lubbock citizens are being held in jail longer than they should be," attorney Rocky Ramirez explained.
The glitches are not cheap.
"There are some counties where they’re paying multiple million-dollar lawsuits," Wanner added.
There are also related lawsuits in Memphis, Tennessee, where Tyler Technologies agreed to a settlement a $5 million class-action lawsuit with people who were wrongfully held in jail. The settlement cost the county and the taxpayers millions.
In Lubbock, the glitches also meant sensitive info from divorce and child custody agreements, including social security numbers and addresses, were made public. The names of crime victims were also mistakenly made public.
"I just had a case with an individual charged with sex assault of a minor," Wanner explained at the time. "So I took that minor's name and typed it in and - sure enough - this 12-year-old minor came up as a victim in a sexual assault case. That should not happen no matter what.”
As of now, Mecklenburg County is scheduled to become the fifth North Carolina county on the system come October.
Attorneys and other users can register now for eCourts applications such as File & Serve and Portal to learn to navigate those platforms and begin reviewing the guides and FAQs available at NCcourts.gov/ecourts.
It is the goal of state officials to have eCourts rolled out in all 100 counties by the end of 2025.
This report was compiled using original reporting by Michelle Boudin. Contact Michelle Boudin at mboudin@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.