(The Center Square) – A lawsuit with claims of unlawful arrests and detainments blamed on flaws in a new $100 million electronic court filing system is moving ahead as officials prepare to expand the program.
Defendants in a class action lawsuit targeting the software company Tyler Technologies were served this week and now have 30 days to respond to allegations a pilot transition to the eCourts system in four counties is violating people’s constitutional rights.
The latest development in the eCourts rollout comes as court officials prepare to add Mecklenburg County to the system in October.
The North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts launched the eCourts transition from paper to digital records in February in Harnett, Johnston, Lee and Wake counties. It immediately faced complaints of glitches in the system, outages, delays and limited access to court records.
The issues, which have persisted for months, led to longer than necessary court appearances for routine requests, delayed protection orders and allegations of wrongful arrests, and delayed jail releases stemming from the complications, attorneys have told The Center Square.
The lawsuit, filed against Tyler Technologies and sheriffs in Lee and Wake counties by Durham attorney Zack Ezor in May, details examples of alleged constitutional violations involving delayed jail releases and multiple arrests from the same warrant.
In one case, a Lee County resident’s jail release was wrongly delayed for two weeks due to a lost case file. Another involved a Triangle resident who was arrested for failure to appear in court in March, then rearrested on the same warrant after her case was dismissed in April, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit seeks $5 million in damages, asks the court to block Wake and Lee county sheriffs from using the system, and aims to delay further rollout of eCourts until the issues are resolved.
The lawsuit also highlights similar litigation against Tyler Technologies, which was awarded a $100 million, 10-year contract to implement the new court software system, in Texas, California, Tennessee and Indiana – evidence the lawsuit says shows North Carolina’s issues were foreseeable.
Officials with the North Carolina court system and Tyler Technologies have declined to discuss the lawsuit with the media, though the former have touted improvements in recent months and benefits of the new system.
“To date, the eCourts pilot counties have successfully accepted over 287,503 electronic filings. Statewide, more than 39,000 interviews have been completed to create a court filing in eCourts’ Guide & File application that assists self-represented litigants with many of the most common legal matters,” according to a recent release from the North Carolina Judicial Branch. “An average of 10,000 electronic searches are conducted each day through the eCourts Portal, saving countless trips to the courthouse with free digital records access for the public.
“Improvements to system speed and stability, refinements of programing integrations, and standardization of new business processes have been key accomplishments during the pilot phase that prepared the platform for deployment to Mecklenburg County,” the release read.
The eCourts expansion to Mecklenburg County, the second largest by population behind Wake, is now set for Oct. 9 following a delay from a scheduled launch in May due to complications in the pilot counties. The statewide rollout will then continue with additional county groupings until all are included by the end of 2025, according to the judicial branch.
“We are proud of the progress North Carolina courts are making to fulfill our constitutional mandate that the courts ‘shall be open’ by upgrading paper processes to deliver digital access to the courthouse with a 21st century justice system,” said Ryan Boyce, director of the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts.
