By Tim Gardner
The North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts (NCAOC) has announced plans to complete the eCourts expansion to trial courts across all of its 100 counties in 2025.
The eCourts Portal application provides the public with no-cost access to digital court and other public records online anytime instead of limiting access to in-person visits during business hours to obtain paper files.
eCourts currently serves approximately half of North Carolina’s population in its three largest cities (Charlotte, Raleigh, and Greensboro) and 38 counties across the coastal, piedmont, and mountain regions that have already had their eCourts systems implemented.
“Millions more North Carolinians will benefit from the convenience of digital access to their courthouse in 2025 as momentum builds for statewide completion of the historic eCourts transition in the Judicial Branch,” NCAOC Director Ryan Boyce said.
Three counties that High Country Press covers—Avery, Watauga, and Ashe–will have to wait almost a year–until July of 2025– for their systems to be completed and operational.
According to the NCAOC, eCourts have been averaging more than 1.5 million online searches per month. Since early 2023, more than 1.3 million electronic filings have been accepted through eCourts. They have dramatically reduced the intake of paper into the court system during the expansion that has been completed, saving an estimated 5 million pieces of paper.
Clerks of Court in Avery, Watauga, and Ashe counties offered High Country Press almost identical sentiments about the eCourts program.
“The eCourts will be an ongoing learning process even after it’s available in our county and all parts of North Carolina. But it will be very helpful to our county’s citizens and all others who use it in many ways,” stated Avery County Clerk of Court Teresa Benfield.
“The eCourts program has been a challenge to implement, but it will be good and beneficial for the public to access,” said Watauga County Clerk of Court Charles Haynes.
“My staff and I are anxiously awaiting the implementation of eCourts in our county. There’s been a whole lot to learn about the eCourts, but our office staff has been through much preparation and is ready to begin using the system next year,” declared Ashe County Clerk of Court Pam Barlow.
The NCAOC introduced new kiosks in eCourts counties this year, which provide a public access point inside courthouses for scanning, printing, payment services, and online search and filing, to further benefit customers with limited access to online services. The multiple benefits of the eCourts transition include:
*Helping customers file common legal actions through the online Guide & File service that assists users with an interview-style forms process.
*Empowering the public with access to justice online any time of every day to check court dates, find records, and file documents instead of limiting access to courthouses during business hours.
*Reducing travel time to courthouses for the public by expanding videoconferencing and creating shared digital access to records.
*Saving valuable courthouse facilities space and millions of sheets of paper through electronic workflows.
*Standardizing court business processes and forms to promote consistency and predictability statewide.
*Connecting eCourts systems with public safety systems to help court officials and law enforcement file and access critical information.
*Updating hardware infrastructure, network bandwidth, and wireless connectivity in courthouses for better and faster internet connectivity for both court officials and the public.
*Updating cybersecurity and data recovery capability systems from aging and costly mainframe technology to state-of-the-art cloud services.
*Providing a training hub with on-demand guidance and Q&As for the public for electronic filing and search applications, Quick Reference Guides, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), and workflows by case type.
*Providing judges and staff remote access to electronic case files from different locations; when used with videoconferencing, this access reduces travel time and increases judicial availability, especially in rural and multi-county districts.
*Reducing foot traffic in courthouse facilities, shortening lines at security checkpoints and customer service counters.
*Freeing court staff to handle complex issues for court customers by lowering the volume of phone calls regarding court dates and records inquiries.
*Centralizing a statewide financial management system to facilitate more convenient, transparent, and timely payments to the court system.
*Reducing the number of returned forms that are filled out incorrectly resulting in court delays for self-represented litigants.
Court officials have indicated that North Carolina’s transition to digital court records stands out among its peers by unifying its 100 counties across every case type in a cloud-hosted environment integrated with public safety applications. Cloud hosting is when you run your application or website on virtual servers in the cloud. Traditionally, organizations hosted applications on physical servers purchased in on-premises data centers or hired from hosting providers.
Preparations and walkthroughs for each track of the eCourts transition begin months in advance to train court officials and the public about new technologies and processes, install improved network infrastructure in courthouses, customize programming integrations, and migrate case event data and court records from mainframe indexes and paper to a cloud-hosted environment. A large network of Information Technology (IT) and software systems teams from NCAOC supports eCourts through training, on-site assistance, remote monitoring, and help desk response.
Those interested may learn more about eCourts by logging online at: NCcourts.gov/eCourts.
-Information in this article about the eCourts system specifics was supplied by the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts (NCAOC)-
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