Labor Day still target for new Kane court case system
Despite rumors and speculation the project will be delayed, Kane County Circuit Court Clerk Thomas Hartwell says the target date to roll out the new $6.8 million court case management system remains Labor Day weekend.
“It's going to be tough but it's doable,” Hartwell said. “That's what the goal is ... to make that Sept. 6 date.”
Two summers ago, the Kane County Board signed a contract to have the Texas-based Tyler Technologies complete a massive technology upgrade of the current case management system, which has been criticized by prosecutors, attorneys and police as being antiquated, inefficient and inaccurate.
The current system is so old that employees must often resort to counting records by hand and employees also must enter the same data several times, thereby decreasing efficiency and prompting errors.
The new system will be quicker, more accurate and allow attorneys to file court motions and lawsuits electronically. Electronic filing is already available for federal lawsuits and has been a feature offered in McHenry County since 2013.
Hartwell said Tyler officials are working on transferring data from the existing system to the new one. The process began with one “push” of data into the new system. Whatever data was not accepted was part of a second “push” to get the new system to accept it. Official are on their fourth of six planned pushes.
“This is a project we want to do right and correct,” Hartwell said. “At this point, they're telling me it's going to be tight but doable. There's always a glitch in a project like this. We'll take a look at what problems we have.”
Hartwell said there is no financial penalty if the vendor falls behind nor a bonus if the project is completed on time or early.
“But if they don't meet those milestones, we don't pay them. A delay in the project is a delay in payment,” he said.
Some attorneys have privately complained that judges have had a difficult time entering information in the program. Hartwell said he was unaware of those difficulties and referred inquiries to the chief judge.
Chief Judge Susan Clancy Boles did not respond to phone messages.