County News


New online service available for flag- lowering notifications


Arkansans can now sign up to receive an e- mail notification of when flags are to be low- ered to half-staff in honor of Arkansas military members who are killed in action. In order


Courts Data: Continued from 26 >>>


“When we started, we didn’t know if we could do it because Arkansas is a non-unified judicial system,” Holthoff said. “We didn’t know how far we’d be able to go because we had to get the buy-in of the judges and the clerks.” Arkansas’ courts aren’t controlled by a central administration. District courts exercise countywide jurisdiction over


misdemeanor,


to receive notice, go to www.arkansas.gov and sign up under “alerts.” Te current status for both the U.S. and Arkansas flags can also be found on Gov.Mike Beebe’s Web site, gover- nor.arkansas.gov. A new law enacted in 2009 increases the instances in which flags are to be flown at half- staff, and has caused some initial confusion. Traditionally, the governor has ordered U.S. and Arkansas flags lowered at state buildings


of the Courts incorporated the circuit court’s suggestions into the filing system, which is “just light years beyond what we had before.” He said more than 120,000 cases have been scanned into the system. He said when a court


on the day of the service member’s funeral. Act 30 of 2009 now requires that, in addition to this, the Arkansas flag must be lowered at all public buildings for three days after the initial notification of the death. Te new e-mail notifications will cover both of these situations. Te notification system will also be used when law-enforcement officers are killed in the line of duty.


“Te electronic citation project would allow law enforcement officers to write


preliminary felony and small-claims civil cases. Tere are 77 district courts with 90 judges. Circuit courts are general jurisdiction trial courts with five divisions: criminal, civil, probate, domestic relations and juvenile. Tere are 28 judicial circuits and 120 circuit judges. Te state also has 89 city courts that have jurisdiction over violations of city ordinances and some misdemeanors. Holthoff, who has been involved with planning the transition from the beginning, said the Administrative Office of the Courts was all right with the slow pace because it gave court clerks, judges and attorneys more time to comment on the system. “We spent a long time trying to get all those


”


citations using a hand-held machine that prints the ticket. Citations then would be electronically filed.


document comes in, it is stamped and entered into the system. It is then scanned, indexed and uploaded into the case-management system. “It streamlines things, it simplifies things and


it’s been a great addition,” he said. “It was like going from Pac-Man to Xbox.” Te Faulkner, Garland, Hot Spring, Searcy


features and functionalities that the courts wanted, that the clerks wanted and the funding in order to make this a system that they wanted us to bring to them,” Holthoff said. “It’s taken a lot longer than it would have in a unified judiciary.”


Pilot Programs Pulaski County Circuit Court installed the


case management system in February after a year-long pilot program. “I think they were happy to let us go first,” County Clerk Pat O’Brien said of the other courts. “We were ready, willing and able to do it.” O’Brien said the Administrative Office


COUNTY LINES, WINTER 2011


and Van Buren County circuit courts also have case information online. Holthoff said more than 1.1 million case files are already online. Holthoff said the Administrative Office of the Courts will soon begin installing the system in Benton, Clark, Crawford, Grant, Miller, Saline and Sebastian counties. He said another six courts could fully implement the case- management system in 2011. Practical Application


Te next phase of the modernization plan is


electronic tickets and crash reporting. Te electronic citation project would allow law enforcement officers to write citations using a hand-held machine that prints the ticket. Citations then would be electronically filed, meaning less paperwork for officers. Te state is negotiating a contract with the University of Alabama Center for Advanced Public Safety.


Te project will be paid for with federal money. “Once we have that piece operational, then the demand from district court will expand like it has from the circuit court,” Holthoff said. Another facet of moving the court system online allows people to pay tickets online if they are not required to go to court. Four district courts already have online ticket payments available: Independence, Lonoke, Faulkner and Hot Spring counties.


Te next phase, which should be


available in March, will let people pay off debt to the court in online installments. So Far...


Putting court documents online is the final phase of a three-part plan to


modernize the state’s courts. Te first part made official court records


available online. In June the Supreme Court stopped publishing its opinions in bound volumes. Part two was the broadcast of oral arguments of the Supreme Court. Tat began in September. “Anybody can watch it, and I think that is


very helpful,” Chief Justice Jim Hannah said. As of Dec. 8, oral arguments had been


viewed 11,221 times. Te bulk of the viewers - 7,957 - watched the oral arguments for the case of a man on death row for killing three West Memphis boys. “We’re doing important and impressive stuff,” Hannah said. “Other states have looked at we’ve done and the U.S. Supreme Court is looking at what we’re doing in the technology aspect.” Cases can be viewed online at caseinfo.aoc.


arkansas.gov. Parking tickets can be paid online at pay.courts.arkansas.gov.


– By Sarah D. Wire


Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Reprinted by permission


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