Garland, Texas - July 6, 2007 -- Garland Municipal Court has implemented its Paperless Court System.  The staff now processes citations from initial input to final disposition entirely online.  No need to track down files among tens of thousands of documents, or dismiss cases because of missing documents.  All case information is available at each clerk’s desktop.
 
John Matthias of the National Center for State Courts is so impressed with the Garland Municipal Court’s achievement, he has invited Court Director Paige Bobbitt to present Garland’s story to an international conference in October.  Matthias said, “Garland Municipal Court’s paperless operation is a success story that deserves national attention. Participating employees in the Court, Organizational Development and IT deserve recognition for this singular achievement.”
 
Garland’s court cases automatically move along an electronic processing path with triggers, alerts, tasks, document creation and e-mail notification capabilities.  The On Base Imaging System has automated all areas of the Garland Municipal Court from citation intake to final judgments in the courtroom.  The system even communicates between departments.  For example, if a police officer submits a citation to the Court and additional data is needed, the On Base Imaging System will place the scanned citation in a pending queue for 14 days, an e-mail message is sent to the officer advising of what information is needed.  If no response is received within the timeframe the case automatically moves to the prosecutor’s queue for action. While at the same time, when cases are sent to a Court clerk’s queue and the time lapses without appropriate action, an e-mail is sent to the clerk’s supervisor.  We even automated the marshal’s functions, defendant check-ins, time serve functions; along with less commonly-used courtroom functions.
 
Taming the massive paper trail of legal documents, struggling to maintain compliance with legislative guidelines and racing the clock to provide timely case adjudication are typical challenges of most Court environments, including Garland Municipal Court.  In 2003, Garland Municipal Court was faced these same challenges coupled with moving into a new facility, negative audit findings, and a chorus of public criticism.  Following a management transition, a new imaging system was awaiting implementation.
 
Pondering the many challenges and seeking long term resolutions, Court staff opted to utilize the new imaging system beyond creating electronic images and the usual “scan and retrieve” functions, but as a tool to overcome current challenges and improve overall operations on a long term basis.  Garland’s Court circumstances didn’t allow for a “one size fits all” approach to imaging.  A totally different approach was required...Paperless! 
 
The term ‘paperless’ has been loosely defined by some as providing online services, access to online forms, online payments and digital signatures.  But Garland Court staff sought a holistic paperless definition.  In Garland, ‘paperless’ means the use of electronic workflows to move imaged case files along processing lifecycles.  That is not to say, we do not receive paper or produce paper. External documents are still received by the Court, such as mail, jail documents, or forms submitted by outside representatives or agencies.  Additionally, the Court prints out receipts for defendants and sends letters to the public in paper form.
 
Any external documents received are scanned into the system attached to a case file that travels through the appropriate lifecycle.  Of course, the Court still processes paper cases brought before the Court prior to the implementation of the paperless system.      
 
The Court staff, Information Technology (IT) staff, and Organizational Development formed Cross Functional Teams (CFT) & Barrier Removal Teams (BRT) to oversee the project’s progress and ensure ongoing communication between all the stakeholders.  Each team had specific functions; the BRT members (Tabatha West, Court Project Manager, Debbie Frey, Court Operations Supervisor, Debra Young, Court Support Services Supervisor, and Michelle Thomason, Organizational Development Analyst) worked directly with the IT programmer, Rocky Rodriguez, to transform each Court process (approximately 60) to electronic computer commands.  The CFT members (Robert  Beasley, Chief Judge; George Kauffman, Managing Director Financial Services; Paige Bobbitt, Municipal Court Director; Becky King, Organizational Development Director) met on a weekly basis to discuss progress, quickly resolve questions or address obstacles, process changes consensus, and monitor project timeline.
 
The BRT members dedicated 32 hours per week to the project, while remaining current on their daily assignments.  Over a 3 year period, the team members were able to complete the imaging programming of more than 60 processes into lifecycles and create more than 110 electronic court documents into workflows.  Lifecycles were developed to determine the path a document travels. 
 
The paperless system not only manages and processes electronic documents, it adheres to Court mandates and processing deadlines minimizing clerk error or oversight. After only two months of operating on the system, the Court staff has recognized the following benefits already: