Superior Court storing cases electronically

The Ventura Superior Court implemented the first phase of the new California Case Management System on March 5. The system will be used for all small claims cases. Existing small claims cases have been transferred to the new system.

Kiosks installed in the small claims lobbies of the Ventura and East County courthouses are available for those who would like to complete their small claims filings online. The document is retrieved by the filings clerk upon presentation of a special code issued by the kiosk. Electronic filing of documents over the Internet is scheduled to be available this summer.

Training of courtroom judicial assistants, small claims processing staff, judicial secretaries, accounting and records staff took place for four weeks prior to the change.

Probate cases are scheduled to be added to the new system in approximately three weeks. Civil cases will be added three weeks after that. By the end of April, the Ventura Superior Court will be the first court in California to have the modules in operation for all three case types. Planning for future phases, which will include traffic, criminal, juvenile and family law, is in the beginning stages.

Some of the benefits of the new system include electronic, paperondemand files that allow multiple users to access a file simultaneously; immediate data entry to ensure that all files possess the most current information, and the beginning of a transition from paper case files to electronic case files.

Benefits to court staff include access to more information and web-based technology that provides drop-down menus for entering data. The improvements will allow staff to work smarter and more efficiently.

The California Case Management System is the result of a joint effort by several courts to establish a common case management system. A prebuilt system that met the courts' needs was not available. In 2002, the Ventura Superior Court began working with the superior courts of Orange, Sacramento, Los Angeles and Sacramento counties to create a custom-built solution in concert with Deloitte Consulting, who has built systems for other courts across the country.

The new case management system is part of an effort to bring all superior courts statewide under the same computer system for all case types. California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George established a goal that the superior courts in all 58 counties be using the new case management system by 2010.