NC district attorneys want state to pause eCourts rollout
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – District attorneys on Thursday urged state leaders to pause the rollout of the new online court record system eCourts because of ongoing issues they’re facing.
During an oversight hearing, the district attorneys told lawmakers about how the system has slowed them down and led to errors with things such as court dates.
“In my district, which must confront the largest volume of criminal cases, grave challenges remain,” said Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather. “There’s a lot of opportunity for mistakes. And, we have seen a lot of them.”
CBS 17 has reported on a variety of issues with the rollout of eCourts over the last year, including incorrect DMV information, incorrect court dates and private information inappropriately made public.
Merriweather said one attorney used to be able to handle about 80 misdemeanor cases during a three-hour session. Now, it takes two attorneys to get through half the caseload.
Johnston County District Attorney Susan Doyle told lawmakers it took her just over two minutes to load a case one day this week.
“Tomorrow, we have 748 cases on our disposition court calendar. That would take more than 24 hours to address every single case on that calendar,” she said.
The state has rolled out eCourts in phases. That began with Wake, Johnston, Harnett and Lee counties. Mecklenburg County launched in phase two.
The rollout continued with counties near the coast in phase three. The fourth group, which stretches from Guilford to Warren will launch April 29.
The DAs said by pausing the rollout, it will help to address the various issues that have arisen and make for a smoother transition for the remaining counties as they begin to use the system. It’s expected to be implemented in every county by the end of next year.
“We have heard that it has improved over time. A pause would give them additional time to work and fully resolve these issues,” said Chuck Spahos, representing the NC Conference of District Attorneys.
Judges and Clerks of Court also spoke to lawmakers, saying they have received significant support from the Administrative Office of the Courts as they’ve transitioned to using eCourts. Some of them pointed to the vendor the state chose, Tyler Technologies, and awarded a $100 million contract.
Judge Wayland Sermons questioned whether the system was prepared to handle the caseload of the state’s largest counties.
Tyler Technologies declined to comment, referring CBS 17 back to the Administrative Office of the Courts.
Ryan Boyce, director of the AOC, raised concerns about pausing the rollout.
“Just slowing down that increase of public access to justice, I think is harmful,” he said.
He also noted it would keep in place the current situation where some counties are using eCourts and some are not.
“The longer we kind of live in this purgatory can be harmful to the public,” he said.
Boyce noted the AOC has had “stark conversations with the vendor” as issues have arisen.
Some lawmakers asked how easily the state could switch to a different vendor once the contract is up. Boyce said the state would retain the case data but that there are “not a lot of competitors in this space.”
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