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Sunday, August 02, 2009

Ind. Courts - Interview with Indiana Court of Appeals Judge Paul Mathias about JTAC

The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, which published this story on July 13th, headed "Delays hurt plan to link state courts: Millions spent, progress scant, and legislators growing weary," today has an interview with Court of Appeals Judge Paul Mathias, a member of the Judicial Technology and Automation Committee, or JTAC, about the system. Here are the relevant Q&As:

The New Haven City Court just connected to the system. What will that mean for that court and people in New Haven?

The first thing that it means is easy access to court records. … It really also means a more efficient court system for the folks in New Haven where people don’t have to enter the information over and over again. Once it’s entered electronically by the arresting officer, it immediately becomes a court record that’s available for the general public to see and for the court to use.

The program is about 7 years old now, and many courts are still not connected. Why is that?

Good and complex things take time. Along the way, it’s important to realize that Odyssey is just one part of what JTAC has been doing. … The way that we electronically communicate to send current driver’s license information to the department of motor vehicles in and of itself saves tens of millions of dollars of federal highway funds each year … the resources that are available to courts and to prosecutors and to public defenders to help them do their jobs better, such as the best in electronic research, and training to use all the technology that we provide.

When do you think the Allen County court system will be connected?

Sometime in 2010. The issue here is that JTAC has limited resources to roll out these systems in counties, and as soon as we finish with our current rollout in Hamilton County, I think that JTAC will turn its attention and focus upon Allen County, which has a very significant court system in terms of size that is important to include in the statewide system.

For the ILB, the intereview raises additional questions.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 2, 2009 11:38 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts