New Kane court case management system a work in progress
Some attorneys are privately expressing their frustrations with the new Kane County circuit court clerk's new case management system.
More than five weeks after its go-live date and people can't pay fines online and numerous files have not updated on the computer system since the transition.
Circuit Court Clerk Thomas Hartwell said Tuesday that improvements are coming, such as the ability for attorneys to file lawsuits and other court documents electronically by early February.
Hartwell said actual complaints to his office have been minimal and he would give his staff an "A" for working hard behind the scenes and with customers during the transition to the $6 million upgrade that was approved by the Kane County Board in summer 2014.
"Most of our customers understand we're going through a huge transition. We're dealing with 44 million documents in our database. There's a lot that needs to be processed and organized," Hartwell said. "We've met our legal obligation that we keep track of the (case) filings."
Hartwell said he hopes to have electronic, online payment capabilities for the public in two weeks, along with electronic filing for attorneys. He couldn't specify the backlog of cases that have been recorded on paper but have yet to be entered into the new system, but said it is "dwindling daily."
The old system was so inefficient, employees had to resort to counting records by hand, sometimes resulting in unreliable data. The new system is supposed to increase accuracy and decrease the time it takes to look up records.
Hartwell said Texas-based Tyler Technologies officials were on hand for several weeks to assist with the transition and can still be called upon to help. In coming weeks, Hartwell said his office will provide links on its website to video tutorials created by Tyler to show people how to better use the system.
Hartwell said last week at the Kane County Judicial and Public Safety Committee: "The go-live went very well."
There were "some bumps, some problems," Hartwell said, but "Tyler said it was one of the best they saw."
• Daily Herald staff writer Susan Sarkauskas contributed to this story.