Lake County pays $5M for filing system it's scuttling

WAUKEGAN, Ill. (AP) - Records show that Lake County officials spent nearly $5 million on a now-abandoned court-filing system and have raised fees in part to finance a replacement.

The (Lake County) News-Sun reports that officials halted work on the program developed by Denver-based URL Integrations in 2016. They paid for e-filing for 15 different civil-case types but implemented only one. They shut that down last spring.

URL Integrations CEO Dave Usery told The Associated Press Sunday that much of the work was finished and "we very much would have completed it" had county officials not stopped work. Usery says divided opinions among county officials and a change in political leadership played parts.

The county has raised court fees to generate $2 million more annually to help pay for a new filing system.