Supporting Court Processes and Continuity of Operations with Laserfiche Mary Jane McCluskey Senior Project Administrator County of York, PA January 14, 2008

Agenda Understanding York County Government Selecting Laserfiche for Document Management Supporting Criminal Court Operations in the Clerk’s Office with Laserfiche -Business Issues to Solve -Results/Benefits -Lessons Learned Assuring Continuity of Government Operations Next Steps in Supporting the Court

York County, PA Population 400,000+ Maryland New Jersey Ohio New York

Why Laserfiche for York County? 2004: Decision to launch a small pilot project utilizing document imaging Board minutes: Commissioners, Salary Board No backup to hard copy minute books Need for ease of access due to significant number of requests for information Initiated search for solutions and vendors

Why Laserfiche for York County? Laserfiche Selected Because –Good product –Reasonable cost –Ease of use –Local VAR support –Robust system that could grow with County needs and desire to bring on larger departments

Next Project – Clerk of Courts Responsible for all Criminal Court Records for York County Court of Common Pleas All records are open to the public – with the exception of juvenile delinquency and dependency cases and impounded criminal cases Maintains a record of docketing/events for 8,000 criminal cases per year What does a Clerk of Courts Do?

Next Project – Clerk of Courts $9 MM annually collected in costs, fines, and restitution from criminal defendants Accepts documents for filing including: –Criminal records –Juvenile court records –Summary (traffic) convictions –Bonds filed by Tax Collectors and Constables –Financial statements of Townships and Boroughs

Issues in the Clerk of Courts Office Overwhelming creation of paper Clerk’s Office records used more, by more departments, than any other office –Sneaker net nightmare –Tons of copying –Documents coming from many offices by mail, in person, etc. –1 copy of document on one of 16 clerks’ desks before filing – finding it was a nightmare! –Costing a fortune in copies, labor, and people running around

Issues in the Clerk of Courts Office Storage and retrieval issues –Older documents at Archives – 5 miles away - Appeals and new arrests! -No Disaster Recovery -Couldn’t get files to Courtrooms fast enough

Issues in the Clerk of Courts Office Need to Communicate with Prison about Court actions faster –Prison 5 miles from Courts –Collecting information from Courtrooms –Separating information that needed to go to Prison –Faxing Clerks minutes Fax machine slow Printer ran out of paper Printer jammed Prison said did not receive Overtime issues when court ran late!

York County Prison

Other Prison Communication Issues People quicker than process –Prisoners arrived back at Prison and Prison didn’t expect them –Families wanted inmates released after Court hearing and Prison didn’t know disposition –New inmates arrived at intake and Prison didn’t know who they were – and sometimes turned them away! –Midnight phone calls

Clerk of Courts Project Implementation Team –Department management –Information Services –Laserfiche –VAR

Project Timeline Began in 2005 Set up Folder Structure –17 criteria –“Chapterized” documents Designed Input Process –Developed batch header sheets –Created templates –Quickfields –Barcodes and barcode guns

Timeline - continued Began scanning some current files – Fall 2005 Established time frames for scanning –Front end –Goal of all documents in system within 4 hours Clerks began to access documents in Courtroom Early 2006 – all files imaged at front-end Summer 2006 –Backscanning Project

Timeline - continued Summer 2006 provided access to system to Judges * Fall 2006 provided advanced training on Laserfiche and Quickfields to Clerk’s staff Began planning for training for Judges January 2007 – –Hands-on training to Judges and their staff

Timeline - continued Automated solution to providing Clerk’s minutes to Prison and others explored - ongoing Began providing access and training to other partner departments – Fall 2006 –District Attorney –Probation –CASA –Sheriff

Timeline - continued Fall pilot to provide online access to attorneys through the internet Future: –Attorneys online –Superior and Supreme Court appeals Sent on disc or electronically –Courtroom Touch screens for clerks Clerks key info and send electronically into Laserfiche speeding up process further

Results and Benefits RESULT: Laserfiche gave the Clerk’s office a vehicle to fine tune their workflow and process –Time stamps and system dates and times –Automated clerk’s minutes – OMR and queues –All documents in system within 4 hours –Scanning assignments - shifts –Establishment of a “rush” process –Cutoff of 3pm for today’s imaging Benefit: –Decreased overtime –Decreased stress levels –No midnight calls from Prison

Results and Benefits RESULT: Documents can be viewed and printed by other departments when they need them Benefit: –Clerk’s time freed for other priorities Clerks aren’t on the phone answering questions for departments that can view records themselves Clerks aren’t copying records for other departments Overtime greatly reduced and NO mandatory OT

Results and Benefits RESULT: Documents can be viewed and printed by other departments when they need them Benefit: - Other departments understood the Clerk’s office responsibilities better –Clerk’s office got much more than they expected Better relationship with users departments More cooperation, less animosity

Results and Benefits RESULT: Documents can be viewed and printed by Judges and staff when they need them. Benefit: –Judges and staff can view and print files whenever they need them – even in the Courtroom –Law clerks can research cases on line and highlight items for judges –Prisoners who are transported to Court and are not on the schedule can still have cases heard, even if the paper file is not there –Clerks aren’t searching for paper files left in Judges Chambers

Results and Benefits RESULT: All 2006 and 2007 files online Benefit: –Judges and others asking for more files to be scanned and put online –Ease of access for research into past cases –Questions from the public can be answered without leaving your desk or putting the customer on hold

Demonstration

Lessons Learned Expectation: This would be quick to implement a complete solution REALITY: To do it right, think in terms of years Don’t try to do everything at once – “baby steps” Not everyone will buy into the new system immediately –Judges threatened Court action… Remember – success builds upon success

Lessons Learned Expectation: If you just give folks access to the system, they’ll figure it out REALITY: Access without training caused frustration! NOTE: Don’t forget to train your staff too!

Other Lessons Learned Project administration a must! Security by groups, not individuals Build system with future capabilities in mind Be careful of 3 rd party applications and interaction with Laserfiche –Clustering software, for example

Laserfiche Supports Continuity of Operations York County’s Continuity of Government Operations Project Goes beyond disaster recovery plans and speaks directly to the needs of the entire organization's functionality –Location, People, Process and Technology

Laserfiche Supports Continuity of Operations Paper files and records identified as a significant vulnerability –Public Defender –Children & Youth Services –Mental Health/Mental Retardation –Others

Other York County Laserfiche Initiatives Sheriff’s Department – Central Booking –Writeable PDFs for booking forms –Automatically filed in Laserfiche – ed to District Justices –Easy lookup Children & Youth Services –Tons of issues with paper files Emergency services Satellite offices Cases open for years and years –Being able to access files in Courtroom and not transport huge files –Redaction of confidential records

How Do We Know the Laserfiche System is Successful? “The Clerk of Courts is the keeper of the Courts’ records. Our job is to preserve the record and make it available. With this system, records are instantly available to 400 users. I rarely touch a paper file anymore… That’s what we’re here for, and Laserfiche accomplishes these objectives for us.” - Donald R. O’Shell, York County Clerk of Courts

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