The Highest-Volume Court in Indiana
With over 200,000 infraction and ordinance violation cases filed in 2008, the Marion County Violations Bureau (Traffic Court) adjudicates more cases than any other court in the state. In February 2009, following many months of planning sessions and training classes, the Traffic Court began using Odyssey, the statewide case management system (CMS) being installed throughout the state by the Division of State Court Administration’s Judicial Technology and Automation Committee (JTAC ).
Traffic tickets written with JTAC’s electronic Citation and Warning System (eCWS) can be electronically filed into Odyssey, saving court and clerk staff hundreds of data entry hours. The Indiana State Police and Speedway Police—both with jurisdiction inside Marion County—use eCWS today, and JTAC is in the planning stages with other local police, including Lawrence and Homecroft Police Departments and the Marion County Sheriff’s Department. Approximately 500 tickets are electronically filed each week in Marion County.
In order to accommodate Marion County’s ticket payment options, JTAC had to make enhancements to Odyssey. Once a ticket is filed in the system, a violator has four ways to pay: in-person, by phone , by mail, or online. Today, if a payment is made online or by mail, Odyssey is electronically updated with the payment information. JTAC will work on additional functionality so that when a ticket is paid, the case will be statistically closed, and a report sent to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles automatically. “It has been great to work with the dedicated staff from Judge William Young’s court and Clerk Beth White’s office,” said Donna Edgar, Odyssey Product Manager for JTAC.
Small Claims Court #3
On December 1, 2008, the Franklin Township Small Claims Court became the third small claims court in Marion County to begin using Odyssey. The Marion County deployment team spent several months converting the court’s data from the existing computer system, and training began before deployment with on-site support lasting until about two weeks after the launch of the new system. By mid-month, the court was off-and-running with Odyssey. The Marion County deployment team is headed up by Gaye Lynn Strickland, JTAC Business Analyst.
Odyssey goes North and South
In between deployment of Odyssey in the two courts in Marion County, courts in DeKalb and Floyd counties began using the system. In both counties, data conversion issues delayed the initially planned launch dates. DeKalb County was originally planning to start using Odyssey on the same date as the Franklin Township Small Claims Court, but converting data from one system to another is always a challenge, and in DeKalb’s case it called for a slight delay. So the start date was pushed back a week, and JTAC took the opportunity to provide extra training to the court staff. On December 8, 2008, DeKalb County turned on Odyssey, and as a result of the extra training, they were even more comfortable with the system than they had been the previous week. The DeKalb County deployment team was led by Marci Scott, a court Subject Matter Expert at JTAC.
In Floyd County, Judge Maria Granger, who was elected to preside over the newly created Superior Court 3, began to use Odyssey on her first day on the job in January 2009. However, the remaining courts in Floyd County did not start using Odyssey until the following month, after JTAC developers labored for several weeks to make sure the data conversion from the courts’ existing system was done right. On February 17, 2009 Judges Terrence Cody, Glenn Hancock, and Susan Orth and Magistrate Daniel B. Burke, Jr. were transitioned to the Odyssey CMS. Lindy Moscrip, a JTAC court Subject Matter Expert and lead in Floyd County, praised the work of Clerk Linda Moeller through the many months of training and transition. “Linda has a can-do attitude and it was a great pleasure to work with her,” Lindy said.
In addition to the Marion County Violations Bureau, court records from the DeKalb, Floyd, Monroe, Tipton, and Warren trial courts and the Washington, Center, and Franklin Township Small Claims Courts in Marion County are available on-line at courts.in.gov. There is no cost to access the records, and they are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!
The biggest challenge in implementing a new case management system is change: change from an old system to a new; change from one business process to another. But challenges also bring opportunities. The deployment of the Odyssey CMS comes at a perfect time for the judges and clerks to examine how they manage their business and case processes to ensure that they are in compliance with federal and state laws and the trial and administrative rules of the Indiana Supreme Court.
