NC prosecutors to lawmakers: Pause rollout of $100M eCourts to deal with problems

The North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys wants to delay the fraught rollout of eCourts, the state’s new electronic filing system for the judicial system.

Citing issues with delayed processing and the release of contact information for victims of domestic violence, the conference’s general counsel, Chuck Spahos, told lawmakers at a committee meeting on Thursday that the eCourts rollout should be paused until these problems are resolved.

Ryan Boyce, director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, said his agency and Chief Justice Paul Newby oppose a delay.

“Slowing down that increase of public access to justice, I think is harmful,” he said.

ECourts is launching across North Carolina in phases. It’s already out in 17 counties, including in the Triangle and Mecklenburg, and is set to expand to another 10 counties on April 29.

The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer have reported on complaints about its performance, including from people who say they were mistakenly taken into police custody due to errors, prosecutors, a county clerk — even the leader of the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

The system is meant to move the state’s courthouses into the modern era. Masses of paper records only available in county courthouses previously are now online and searchable. Lawyers, judges and clerks can do much of their work from computers now.

Since the phased rollout began in February 2023, complaints have continued to mount about the software’s sluggish performance that in some cases slowed courtroom operations to a crawl — or shut them down altogether.

For months the News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer have asked for a chance to interview AOC staff about a myriad of eCourts concerns. The office has only sent emailed statements in response.

Attorneys, clerks and judges were present at the meeting on Thursday, sharing their experiences with eCourts to lawmakers on the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Justice and Public Safety.

Spencer Merriweather, the district attorney for Mecklenburg County, told the committee that the new system has made it easier for the personal information of domestic violence victims to be accessed online.

“The most sensitive identifying information might be redacted,” he said. “But if it’s missed — if yet another step and keystroke results in error — victims and witnesses can be exposed to harm and it could chill their continued participation in criminal prosecution.”

Boyce said AOC has worked to remove victim information in case details. He also noted that contact information for complainants in cases has always been public information.

Several Superior Court clerks told lawmakers that while there had been issues with the rollout, they still supported the state’s switch to a digital filing system.

“I believe we’ve moved from an archaic system into a state-of-the-art system,” Michelle Ball, the clerk of Superior Court in Johnston County, said.

Some lawmakers on the committee voiced their displeasure with the eCourts rollout, with Sen. Warren Daniel, a Burke County Republican, questioning whether it would be possible to keep the system but end the relationship with the developer, Tyler Technologies, when the state’s over $100 million contract ends.

“They built us this car, their contract ends in 2029,” he said. “So could we keep the car and if we wanted a different mechanic to keep it running, could we do that, or is it proprietary to Tyler? Could we have our own in-house IT department that was keeping the car running?”

That would likely be impossible, Boyce said.

“We’re essentially leasing a car, but paying for customizations,” he said. “So if we were going to move on, I don’t think we could keep their software because we would lose that licensing access.”

A federal lawsuit is also targeting eCourts, alleging that the system is making it take longer for people to be released from jail than it should. Also, some people have been arrested multiple times on the same warrants, it alleges. North Carolina clerks and sheriffs are also named as defendants.