Since 2023, the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts has been transitioning from a paper system to an electronic, cloud-based system. The courts are using software from Enterprise Justice, previously known as Odyssey, throughout the state.
Over the last two years, the transition to eCourts has been bumpy at times. In 2024, the NC Conference of District Attorneys asked to pause the program, calling it unwieldy and time consuming. Still, as the issues with digitizing paperwork have been worked out, the digital switch promises a more convenient process for filing documents, looking up court dates, and searching for court records online at any time, said Ryan Boyce, the director of NCAOC.
“Folks can look up court records online through a function called portal that online search is both free and it's open 24/7, anywhere where you have an internet connection. People can not only pull up court records, they can also pull up their court dates, which we found is the number one reason people call a clerk's office," he said.
Court paperwork can be filed online using the Guide & File feature that allows anyone to prepare documents online by following a few prompts from start to completion, similar to using tax-filing software, said Boyce.
The new system is expected to benefit judges, attorneys, and residents. Boyce also said the system is compliant with the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s standards for cybersecurity.
“[We] not only create a backup copy in our vendor system, we also create a third copy that we keep outside the vendor system in a secure data center,” Boyce said. “So we've got not just one, but two backup copies if something were to occur. But we've got the highest levels of cybersecurity monitoring, not just from the vendor, but also from our security information team here at AOC.”
Chief Public Defender for New Hanover and Pender counties Jennifer Harjo said the public defender’s office is taking the modernization approach a step further by going paperless.
“I don't know that any other office in North Carolina has gone completely, but we're gonna try to do paperless. We're just gonna take the plunge,” Harjo said. “Through the enterprise justice system, we will use our attorney manager to maintain our file organization, notes and whatever other documents that need to be retained, in addition to whatever cloud-based drives that we have available to us as well.”
Harjo says much of the information her office receives from the District Attorney's Office to prepare for trial is often in a web-based or digital format, so they are familiar with using digital files in some capacity. But she says some legal professionals are expecting to have more of a learning curve than others.
“You're talking about a lot of lawyers that have a lot of experience, and have been doing things the way they do them. And now having something new thrown at them, it can be stressful,” Harjo said.
Assistant Public Defender Bud Woodrum, said a lot of work has gone into this.
“I know the clerk's office has had it the worst, because they have to take and scan all the old paper files into the system,” says Woodrum. “So not only did they have to prepare for the implementation of it by learning the new program [themselves], they had that huge extra added task of creating electric files from all the old paper files. So it's been a huge undertaking for all parties, both here and in Pender County.”
Woodrum says local court officials underwent mandatory training prior to the rollout, but “it's kind of a wait and see how it's actually going to function and how it can be adapted on our side, as well as in the courts.”
But Harjo and Woodrum are concerned that many of their indigent clients may bear the burden during this period of transition.
“The slowness with which we can resolve cases is going to, I think, have a large impact, especially on our clients, which a lot of them are in our custody,” Woodrum said. “So in the interim, our ability to resolve matters quickly and efficiently, the old way - which we can — after this is implemented, I think we're going to lose that ability to be flexible again.”
Woodrum says one pro for their clients is the ability to view court dates as they are updated online, which corrects some of the discrepancies people experienced looking up their court dates using the old system online.
According to an employee in the clerk’s office, people can still search for records in-person, however the self-service kiosks located on the second floor of the New Hanover County courthouse will be replaced with new kiosks that are compatible with the eCourts system in the near future.
Boyce says the new eCourts system is user friendly, and that people can access trainings on their site to become more familiar with the process.
