In June 2014, many Marion County criminal justice agencies went live on new software applications, as the county’s legacy JUSTIS main-frame case management system was decommissioned. This held true for the Marion County Public Defender Agency (MCPDA), which went live on the state-provided Public Defender Information System (PDIS). PDIS is a web-based case management system designed to support the needs of public defenders, paralegals and office staff throughout the State – particularly in counties that utilize the Odyssey Case Management System for trial court case management.
PDIS was developed in partnership between the Indiana Public Defender Council (IPDC) and the Indiana Supreme Court’s Division of State Court Administration’s Trial Court Technology staff. IPDC owns PDIS, which is connected to the Court’s Odyssey case management system.
PDIS reads data from the court system, Odyssey. This provides public defenders with access to real-time court case information, including the chronological case summary, charges, case financials and client demographics. Public defenders and paralegals are able to also use the system to track case notes and files, which are not shared with the court system. This provides public defenders with the best of both worlds – they are able to have real time access to court information, while maintaining confidential case files.
Marion County operations were transformed by the addition of PDIS. With PDIS, “our attorneys are able to generate slates” says Ann Sutton, Chief Counsel for MCPDA. Additionally, says Sutton, “our paralegals are able to assign cases to attorneys in PDIS. PDIS then tracks caseloads based on the Indiana Public Defender Commission’s weighted case-load standards and automatically generates the state quarterly report, saving us significant time each quarter.”
Marion County has invested in the development of PDIS, allowing for enhancements to be created that not only benefit Marion County, but benefit users across the state. For example, Marion County recently funded the development of a forms generation engine.
“Now our attorneys and paralegals save time by generating various forms and motions through the system. The forms automatically pull case information from the system, and allow users to override information, if needed. The form is stored in the system as part of the case file, so that it may be accessed in the future” says Sutton. This functionality will also be made available to the other PDIS users across the state.
Soon, MCPDA office staff will be able to use PDIS to schedule depositions. This new functionality will allow staff to directly schedule depositions, bypassing our current, manual process – this will save staff time, and provide more flexibility to attorneys and paralegals.
Interested in learning more about PDIS? Contact Larry Landis at (317) 232-2321 or [email protected]