County News


The Cleburne County Quorum Court recognized four outgoing JPs at its Dec. 13 meeting. From left: Charles Norton; 22 years; Hubert Long, 6 years; Wetzel Stark, 10 years; and Paul Moore, 8 years. What was intended to be a small reception before the meeting drew a full house, with a standing-room-only crowd in the meeting room.


Arkansas courts beginning to put data on Internet Te state Supreme Court’s plan for uniform


online public access to court records across the state is being implemented after almost a decade of development.


A handful of counties are the first to have the case-management system, which will take years to be fully functional across the state. Each court chooses whether to adopt the system, which is paid for through existing court fees. Te management system cost the state $2 million initially. An electronic filing system will cost an additional $1.5 million. Support and software updates will cost $1 million annually. Te system allows users to file documents, pay tickets and respond to jury summonses online.


Although Associate Justice Paul Danielson was elected to the court seven years after planning for the court’s modernization began, his interest in the technology caused him to become the program’s “shepherd.” He said his goal is to change how Arkansans interact with their courts by making information more accessible. Te Administrative Office of the Courts plans to have 80 percent of the state caseload on the system by 2016. Costs include more than $967,000 to license Contexte case- management-system software from Lexington, Ky.-based ACS Government Systems. Six circuit courts – Faulkner, Garland, Hot


Spring, Pulaski, Searcy and Van Buren counties – are using the Contexte system. Five district courts - Conway, Malvern, Batesville, Carlisle


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and Mount Ida – also are using the system. Eleven of the state’s 28 circuit courts are on a waiting list for the system. No district court is on the waiting list. Here’s how the system works: Lawyers file


two versions of court documents. Te complete document is considered the official court record. Te other version redacts private information, such as a Social Security number. Tis second, redacted version is what goes online for public access. “It seems to be working pretty well,”


Danielson said. “We put the burden on the [attorney] who knows the case to redact. So you’re getting pretty good balance between the information that the public wants access to ... and at the same time you’re protecting the privacy.”


Electronic Filing Te Legislative Council Committee in


December approved a two-year $651,125 contract to create the electronic filing system. Te Administrative Office of the Courts accepted a joint bid for the project from ACS and Orem, Utah-based Tybera Development Group. Testing of the four-phase Pulaski County


Circuit Court electronic-filing pilot project is expected to run from January 2011 to July 2012. Once each phase is complete, it will be available to courts that have installed the Contexte system, Holthoff said. Electronic files are uploaded from a user’s


computer, such as an attorney’s, to the filing system. Danielson said many lawyers already use the technology and are pushing courts to do so as well because it is more efficient and less expensive to submit documents electronically instead of printing copies of court records, which can be thousands of pages long. Arkansas Bar Association Executive Director


Karen Hutchins said that while the association has no official opinion, “attorneys welcome this opportunity” to file information online. She said filing online will save time and


money, savings that can be passed on to clients. “It’s making the whole system just from the


top down more efficient,” Hutchins said. “It adds up over time just to do the basics, and this will help make the basics more efficient.” Lawyers who work in more than one county will want the opportunity to operate the same way across the state, Danielson said. “To me it’s like a train going downhill now;


we couldn’t stop it if we wanted to. When the Legislature gave us the money, we were pretty much committed to do it,” Danielson said. “I suspect it won’t be very long before every court in the state has requested that they be put in line.”


What Took So Long? Court Information Systems Director Tim


Holthoff said the 10-year timeline of the project is due to Arkansas’ court system.


Continued on Page 29 >>> COUNTY LINES, WINTER 2011


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