THURSTON COUNTY (WA) - DISTRICT COURT ACCOUNTING AND RECORDING SYSTEM

• NCJ Number: 59999
• Author(s): ANON
• Date Published: 1979
• Length: 15 pages
• Corporate Author: IBM
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Publication Type: Statistics
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

THE DISTRICT COURT ACCOUNTING AND REPORTING SYSTEM, (DCARS), INITIATED IN THE STATE OF WASHINGTON, THURSTON COUNTY, IN 1975 IS DESCRIBED; BENEFITS OF THE SYSTEM ARE EMPHASIZED.

Abstract

BEFORE THE 1975 DEVELOPMENT IN THURSTON COUNTY, OF AN AUTOMATED DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM FOR THE STATE COURTS, ONLY A FEW WASHINGTON COURTS UTILIZED DATA PROCESSING TECHNIQUES. TODAY, THE DCARS AND THE IBM 3741 CREATE A STRAIGHTFORWARD AND ECONOMICAL APPROACH TO AUTOMATING COURT ACTIVITIES. THE SYSTEM IS CURRENTLY IN USE AT 25 DISTRICT AND MUNICIPAL COURTS IN WASHINGTON; ACTIVITIES OF THESE COURTS ACCOUNT FOR 33 PERCENT OF THE TOTAL DISTRICT AND MUNICIPAL COURT WORKLOAD OF THE STATE. INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY AND REVENUE BENEFITS HAVE RESULTED. AT PRESENT, DCARS PROVIDES CIVIL CASE PROCESSING SUPPORT IN THE FORM OF CASE-SETTING NOTICES AND CALENDARS. FUTURE PLANS INVOLVE ESTABLISHMENT OF A CIVIL DATA FILE THAT WOULD BE USED IN CIVIL CASE TRACKING. THE SYSTEM COULD SEARCH THE FILE AND AUTOMATICALLY IDENTIFY THOSE CASES WHICH HAVE HAD NO ACTIVITY WITHIN A SPECIFIED LENGTH OF TIME. CURRENTLY, CIVIL CASES ARE TRACKED MANUALLY. THE ADDITION OF A WARRANT CONTROL SYSTEM IS ALSO ANTICIPATED. DCARS ALSO COMPILES CITATION AND TRANSACTION STATISTICS ON A DAILY BASIS AS OFTEN AS THE TRANSACTION JOURNAL AND CITATION LOG ARE RUN. EXPANSION OF THE STATISTICAL REPORTING CAPABILITIES TO INCLUDE PRODUCTION OF TRANSACTION, CITATION, DISPOSITION, AND CASELOAD STATISTICS ON A MONTHLY BASIS WOULD RELIEVE COURT PERSONNEL OF COMPILATION TASKS AND WOULD FURTHER SUPPORT PLANNING AND ANALYSIS EFFORTS. IT IS CONCLUDED THAT DCARS HAS SUCCESSFULLY INTRODUCED AUTOMATION INTO DISTRICT AND MUNICIPAL COURTS IN WASHINGTON. A RESULT OF THESE POSITIVE EXPERIENCES HAS BEEN THE TRIGGERING OF INCREASED ANTICIPATION OVER ADDITIONAL BENEFITS THAT WILL BE REALIZED THROUGH THE USE OF THE DISTRICT/MUNICIPAL COURT INFORMATION SUBSYSTEM, SCHEDULED FOR IMPLEMENTATION IN THE EARLY 1980'S. PHOTOGRAPHS AND EXHIBITS ARE INCLUDED WITH THE TEXT. (LWM)