Special to IFN
Iredell County Clerk of Superior Court Jim Mixson announced Thursday that Iredell County will transition to eCourts on October 13.
An initiative of the North Carolina Judicial Branch to modernize the state’s court system, eCourts will take the court system from paper to digital and from 20th century mainframes to cloud-based technologies. eCourts will allow 24-hour remote access to court records and other applications.
“For many years, our state’s court system case management application portfolio has relied on older mainframe technology, which is more complex to maintain and support. Our legacy systems are basically simple indexes for our paper files and not true case management systems,” Mixson said.
The eCourts Integrated Case Management System is cloud hosted, making case management and case filings more efficient and effective.
“This is a generational change to the way our courts will conduct business, and I am excited to bring this modern system to Iredell County,” stated Mixson.
NC Administrative Office of the Courts Director Ryan S. Boyce said the new system would be more convenient for those served by the courts.
“This digital transition is made possible by the commitment of judicial officials and partners across the state working together to meet the challenges of a statewide transition and bring to fruition the constitutional guarantee that the courts shall be open for the public,” Boyce said.
In Iredell County, the transition period will begin in May as clerks, judges, magistrates, district attorneys, attorneys, law enforcement and other judicial partners receive training.
“There is also a tremendous of amount of work that must be done to convert our pending cases from paper to digital applications prior to our go live date in October. We’ve got a large endeavor ahead of us,” Mixson said.
The N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts worked with the National Center for State Courts to convene stakeholders, develop business requirements, and identify vendors. Tyler Technologies’ Odyssey suite was the solution selected to help migrate court processes from a variety of older legacy applications to one integrated case management system.
In addition to electronic filing and records searches, the eCourts suite of applications also includes the already statewide eWarrants and Enforcement Mobile platforms, which integrate law enforcement processes with the court system, and Guide & File, a tool that helps self-represented users create and electronically file common legal actions through automated interviews. Statewide, more than 36,000 registered eWarrants users have issued 1.2 million criminal processes since the eCourts application for law enforcement replaced older systems in July 2022.