Courts work to improve record system

Information access will be faster for the public and those working in courts.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- An antiquated and cumbersome system of providing access to court records will end in Trumbull County in coming months.
In its place will be online access to the records -- something the public and those in the legal profession will find extremely useful, said Linda Sypert, the county's information services director.
Those who need information on court cases being handled by the county Court of Common Pleas will be able to get details just as soon as documents are scanned by workers. These will immediately go onto the clerk of courts Web site for public viewing, she said.
Under the current system, records pertaining to lawsuits and criminal cases are available in paper form at the clerk of courts office in the courthouse. But online detail about the cases is limited and not timely by today's standards.
"A lot of people who use that information have to come downtown," Sypert said. "Now they will be able to do the research from their own desk, from their facility."
Current inconveniences
The most cumbersome part of the current system, officials agree, is that the information now available online is anywhere from a few days to more than a month old. That's because the system in place since 2001 includes an update of the information around the beginning of every month instead of "real-time" updates -- or updates that occur as soon as information is entered into the computer system.
Sypert and Barbara J. Vingle, the computer systems administrator for the clerk of courts office, have worked for hours on weekends -- on their own time -- once a month since 2001 to provide the monthly update, Sypert said.
Sypert said she couldn't have imagined that she "would be doing this on weekends for years."
The real-time updates also will end a series of inefficient tasks county workers must currently carry out, such having workers in the Prosecutor's Office re-key records into their system, and scanning court records by the microfilm department to provide backup files required by the state.
In the future, microfilm records can be made directly from the electronic database, Sypert said.
Real-time access
Other things the new system will make available will be filing of court documents online and access to the schedules of all of the common pleas courtrooms, as well as Family and Domestic Relations Court, Warren Municipal Court, Eastern District Court and Central District Court.
Access to all of these schedules will eliminate conflicts for the attorneys, Vingle said, adding that information attorneys would normally have to get by telephone will be available online.
Real-time access is already available in the county's Probate Court, run by Judge Thomas A. Swift, Sypert said. That court, which has its own computerization budget, was recognized by a national organization recently for its public records access and Web site.
Facilitates communication
Another benefit is the way all of the agencies within the county that work through the court system will be able to communicate with one another, such as the Adult Probation Department, Juvenile Probation Department, Child Support Enforcement Agency, Prosecutor's Office and Jury Commission.
In many cases now, those agencies send lots of faxes on cases to one another, Sypert said. "The goal is to get them all talking to each other," she said.
Overdue improvement
Sypert and Vingle said the improved access to court information is overdue from the standpoint that most other counties in Ohio have already gone to the advanced systems.
Counting Trumbull, there are only four counties in the state still using the antiquated system Trumbull uses, Vingle said. Trumbull appears to be the only one of Ohio's 18 "urban" counties on the old system, she said.
The county went to its current Courtview Legacy system in 1995 as a "stop-gap" measure to begin the process of providing computerized records, Sypert said. At the time, the Microsoft Windows operating system was just becoming popular, and she was monitoring the technology to decide on a way to upgrade from there.
Financial situation
The county's financial problems kept county commissioners from buying newer software. Finally, in March of this year, the commissioners approved taking out a loan of $1.2 million and selling notes in anticipation of issuing bonds for the project. A $50,000 state grant is also helping with the cost.
In August, the county approved agreements with CCI Maximus of North Canton for software licenses, services and support agreements totaling $841,890. Also to be bought are laser printers, computer monitors and 198 new computers, Sypert said.
A kickoff meeting will be held Dec. 8 for Maximus to lay out how the installation and training will be conducted. Clerk of Courts Karen Infante Allen said she is hopeful the system can be running by January.