Despite problems, eCourts moves ahead

Despite a steep learning curve, technical problems and a class action lawsuit, North Carolina’s new eCourts judicial records system is moving forward, with five counties on board and others expected to come online next year. 

The system was delivered with fanfare Feb. 13, and paralegals reported it did not measure up to their expectations and was almost impossible to manage. Today, eight months after the pilot program launched in Wake, Harnett, Johnston and Lee counties, users are still frustrated but finding ways to cope. 

Slated to deploy in summer in Mecklenburg County, problems and glitches pushed it back to Oct. 9. Next on the list to roll out are 11 counties in northeastern North Carolina. The entire state is expected to be online by 2025, but Sarah White, a Raleigh-based litigation paralegal at Ragsdale Liggett is skeptical. 

“I think we’ll see more delays, and I feel it’s probably going to be a couple of years before we get the entire state on the platform,” she said. 

After years of discussions about modernizing the state’s outdated court filing system, the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts awarded Texas software company Tyler Technologies a $100 million contract in 2019 for eCourts. 

The comprehensive suite of software applications offers a system for all types of court processes, including eFiling, eDiscovery, financial management, and a public access portal where people can pay fines and court costs and access records. This system also is online in 38 other states. 

Early problems, ranging from the inability to upload documents to failure to locate them in the system, have plagued users, and there was tremendous difficulty finding cases. 

“If you were searching by party name, you had to enter it exactly as the clerk had entered it in the system,” White said. “So, if there was a stray comma or a misspelled name, you could not find it in the search engine, and that is a big deal.” 

Tyler Technologies has added a “wild card” function allowing searches with a partial document title. 

Wrongful arrests 

In some cases, system glitches in the eWarrants app have had devastating impacts, causing people to be wrongfully arrested on nonexistent outstanding warrants despite having their cases dismissed or otherwise resolved. 

Now, Tyler Technologies, Wake County Sheriff Willie Rowe and Lee County Sheriff Brian Estes are defendants in a class action lawsuit brought by plaintiffs who were unlawfully detained. According to the complaint, similar problems have cropped up in Texas, California, Tennessee and Indiana, and the defendants should have known that problems with eWarrants could lead to mistaken arrests if it was not implemented with due care. 

“We’re seeing lawsuits all over the country against Tyler Technologies because of system glitches caused defendants to not receive hearing notices or failure to record resolution of their cases, so they’ve had warrants issued against them,” White said. “Now we’re hearing that rather than use the eCourts portal system, criminal defense attorneys are sending their clients to the courthouse to pay their fines in person and to take their case numbers with them to ensure they are recorded correctly.” 

When eCourts launched in the first four North Carolina counties, the AOC acknowledged the likelihood of problems but assured the legal community that improvements were in the works. 

This system is still a work in progress, but getting better each day, AOC spokesman Graham Wilson said in a written statement. 

“Both attorneys and courthouse staff are gaining comfort and familiarity with the system,” he wrote. “That said, any new system has a learning curve and requires configuration refinements during the pilot phase, and that is the case with this project.” 

Exercise in patience 

System architects and proponents tout eCourts for expanding access to justice by streamlining processes like filing documents electronically; paying filing fees, fines and court costs; and receiving emailed status updates. The system is web-based, giving people without access to home computers the ability to conduct their court business using their smartphone. In addition, courthouses offer computer terminals for public use. 

“Just the convenience factor of being able to file electronically and save the cost of paper and postage is a huge advantage for pro se parties or individuals needing to access the court system,” White said. 

She further urges users to exercise patience and avoid procrastinating when using eCourts. 

Filings are not considered complete until users receive an email notifying them that they have been accepted. And the deadline to file is 5 p.m. 

“We are telling everyone not to wait until the last minute,” White said. “If you’re filing on the last day before a statute of limitations runs out and you are notified the next day the document has been rejected, you’re toast.” 

Mecklenburg County rollout 

In Mecklenburg County, using eCourts is a mixed bag, said Shelli Simontacchi, a senior litigation paralegal with Hedrick Gardner Kincheloe & Garofalo in Charlotte. 

Documents filed in Mecklenburg County before the Oct. 9 eCourts launch date are not currently in the system, she said. 

“If you need a case from last year, you have to go to the courthouse and get it the old-fashioned way,” she said. 

The same is true for Business Court, which will not go onto the eCourts system until all 100 counties are online, Simontacchi said. 

“For example, in a Business Court case I’m working on, I still had to go through eFlex, which is the Business Court filing system, and then had to get on the eCourts system to file it in Superior Court,” she said. “It’s a convoluted process.” 

In some ways, the eCourts system has spawned a measure of camaraderie among paralegals, legal assistants in lawyers, who have banded together to share frustrations and learn from each other. 

“In Mecklenburg County, when eCourts first rolled out for us, anyone with a filing would invite the legal assistants, paralegals and attorneys into their office, and together, they would navigate through the process,” Simontacchi said. “I think it helped to be able to see it in action and work through all the steps together.” 

White recently presented an informational session on eCourts for the N.C. Association of Defense Attorneys’ fall seminar and published a comprehensive paper on the topic, and other professional organizations are structuring educational programs around eCourts. 

Despite the problems, Simontacchi and White are optimistic. 

“We’re focusing on making sure everyone is aware of the training and opportunities to learn, and we hope that by the time the system rolls out across the state, the problems will be resolved,” White said.