Court Records Modernization
WBEZ recently reported on Sheriff Tom Dart’s criticism of the Cook County Clerk of the Court’s office for an antiquated records system. A radio report on the station this week mentioned that the Clerks Office’s modernization plan is over ten years old now. The Office of the State Appellate Defender has likewise been criticizing the Clerk’s office over poor management of court records for years.
These criticisms focus on the use of paper records, how easily they are lost, and how difficult they are to share with people who need them. The WBEZ report ends with the wry detail that carbon paper is still necessary in Cook County’s courtrooms—raising the issue that our court system is not employing available technology to its benefit.
Chicago Appleseed is a research-based advocacy organization and our focus is court system dysfunction. We agree with concerns that court records are difficult to access and raise the further concern that it is nearly impossible to collect case management information and docket statistics on the Circuit Court, in part because the Clerk’s Office records management is antiquated. As an example of the information lacking about our courts and how they function, Illinois does not monitor compliance with its time standards for disposition of cases.
Many states and the federal judiciary have comprehensive reporting requirements for their courts which enable tie collection of meaningful data about how they function. The National Center for State Courts and the Conference of Court Administrators have collected some of these practices and offered tools and guidance for tracking the flow of cases through court systems for over 15 years. Court records modernization must include tools and protocols for comprehensive court statistics reporting, including information about how many (and what type) of cases are active, inactive, opened and closed in Cook County every year. Data collection under the NSCS model provides valid, reliable and useful information on the nature, scope, and volume of work before the court, indispensable and necessary for the assessment of how well courts are fulfilling their function.
Comprehensive docket statistic reporting, which would be facilitated by court records modernization, would fill the information gap about our courts. Court records modernization would not only assist agencies, like the Sheriff and the Appellate Defender, in doing their jobs, but would also improve the court’s ability to allocate resources and manage its courtrooms. Finally, comprehensive docket statistic reporting allows advocacy organizations, watchdog groups and the press and public insight into how our courts function.