Dec. 5 is 'go live' date for new Kane County case system
The real transition to the long-awaited new court case management system in Kane County has begun, with some services scaled back until the Dec. 5 "go-live" date.
The Kane County Board in 2014 signed off on a new $6 million system to replace the antiquated system being used by the circuit court clerk.
The Odyssey System from Texas-based Tyler Technologies was supposed to premiere after Labor Day in September, but Circuit Clerk Thomas Hartwell and his staff pushed it back to early December.
"We're definitely looking forward to that day when we can get the new system up and running," Hartwell said Wednesday.
The current system is so inefficient, employees often resort to counting records by hand, sometimes resulting in unreliable data.
The new system will increase accuracy, decrease the time it take to look up records, and allow attorneys to file court motions and lawsuits electronically, saving costs to their clients.
This week, Hartwell's office said that until Dec. 5 credit card payments will not be accepted. He said there haven't been any complaints from people, in part, because the restriction is temporary.
Also, new court cases and existing ones will not be updated into the clerk's computer system or be available on its website from Nov. 28 through Dec. 4.
Hartwell said employees will record information on paper during that time and begin entering it into the new system Dec. 5. Previous cases will still be available online or at the clerk's office.
"It takes about a week to make that transition behind the scenes," Hartwell said. "(The entire transition) is an organizational task. I think it's going along very well."
Hartwell said up to 20 Tyler employees will be on hand during the transition to help residents, attorneys and clerk's office employees.
State's Attorney Joe McMahon, who has expressed frustrations in the past with the old system, said this week he was looking forward to Odyssey's arrival.
"We're excited about it. We're quickly approaching the eleventh hour," said McMahon, adding the system can hopefully produce reports on types of cases prosecuted without requiring his staff to manually enter data into a spreadsheet.