The
newest smart phone is released and the first question users ask is, “What more
can it do?” A user’s relationship with
technology has an evolution of emotion from scared and overwhelmed to
acceptance, then comfortability, finally ending in the question, “What more can
it do?” Once we become accustomed to it,
new technology can become addictive.
At
that moment, I was introduced to Teri Benedetti from the Matterhorn software
team of Court Innovations, Inc., who began talking about Matterhorn’s Online Case
Resolution. It was a simple concept:
rather than mailing individuals a plea by mail form, allow them to plea online.
While the Matterhorn software has more
capability than that, this piece came with not only a realistic cost, but little
staff effort in creation and usage. Our
subscription cost was based on an assumed 25 plea requests per month at $10 per
plea request. If plea requests increased
above 25, we would still only pay the monthly subscription charge of $250. To arrive at the assumed amount, Matterhorn
pulled data from the Judicial Data Warehouse on our payable misdemeanor case
filings and size of our court.
Tailoring
the software to fit our court’s needs only required a couple of meetings with
Matterhorn staff (via web/conference call), proofreading of documentation, and
decisions on review process. Training
staff to use the software was minimal because the software is very
user-friendly. Our first web meeting
with Matterhorn was on December 13, 2017, and on February 6, 2018, the 10th
District Court began accepting pleas online.
Prior
to February 6, the court advertised on its Facebook page that Online Case
Resolution was “coming soon.” On
February 6, we sent press releases to local media, announced the new capability
on the court’s Facebook page, and added the link with announcement on the court’s
website.
This
project had two main goals:
1)
To
replace pleas sent through U.S. postal mail with electronic pleas: and.
2)
Toincrease
the number of pleas and decrease nonappearance or no response to tickets.
As
of May 23, 2018, we have been meeting our first goal. Between February 6, 2017, and May 23, 2017,
the court sent out via U.S. postal mail 59 plea by mail forms; between February
6, 2018, and May 23, 2018, the court sent out 2 plea by mail forms via U.S.
postal mail. Between February 6, 2018,
and May 23, 2018, the Court received 22 requests to plea via Online Case
Resolution. It appears that people are
opting to use the Online Case Resolution rather than U.S. postal plea by mail
forms. We will continue to work toward
our second goal.
Some
of the benefits our Court has already begun to see are fewer outstanding
warrants, less court scheduling, less court time, and fewer cases in
collections. There is no question that
large-scale technology projects drive necessary change, create efficiencies, and
update culture, but they also come with large-scale price tags and long-term
planning. Smaller-scale technology projects
have the potential to be just as impactful, but at a smaller price and
effort. So, what more can we do?
