The Blackford and Huntington Circuit and Superior Courts and Clerk’s Offices are successfully operating a new 21st-century computer system called “Odyssey,” the Indiana Supreme Court announced Friday. Odyssey connects the counties to a continually growing network of courts, clerks, law enforcement and other state agencies.  There are currently 50 courts in 18 counties in the state using Odyssey.  The courts and clerk in Allen County are scheduled to begin using Odyssey in the third quarter of 2010.

The upgrade to Odyssey in Blackford and Huntington Counties is part of the Indiana Supreme Court’s effort to equip every trial court with a 21st-century case management system.  Odyssey connects courts with each other, law enforcement, state agencies and makes court information available over the Internet at no charge.

With Odyssey, an estimated 3,000 new cases filed in Blackford County and 7,000 new cases filed in Huntington County each year will be managed by a state-of-the-art computer system.  Judge John Forcum of the Blackford Superior Court has worked closely with the Supreme Court on other technology initiatives, “I was an advocate for the statewide use of the Protection Order Registry.  The Registry allows courts and law enforcement to share important information regarding all court orders in domestic violence cases.  The Odyssey system allows the sharing of all court information with judges, clerks, law enforcement and the public.  And, having Odyssey will allow us to manage the courts more efficiently in this electronic computer age.”

Huntington County Clerk Fran Felts, who just began her term as the Circuit Court Clerk, is pleased with the new system and explained, “In our old system, it was difficult to find multiple cases for a particular person without searching through many screens. It is a one-step process in Odyssey.   The financial program in Odyssey maintains a complete payment history for every case.  This is a great benefit for the person making a payment, especially when they want to know their balance because it prints out on every receipt. The screens are user-friendly, and once you enter the case history and financial information taking a payment is a breeze.  Huntington Circuit Court Judge Thomas Hakes, Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Heffelfinger and former Clerk Vicki Stoffel were instrumental in bringing this project to fruition.”

Odyssey was first installed in ten Indiana courts on a pilot basis in December 2007 under the direction of the Indiana Supreme Court’s Division of State Court Administration’s Judicial Technology and Automation Committee (JTAC).  Indiana Supreme Court Justice Frank Sullivan, Jr., who chairs JTAC, congratulated the court staff of both counties; including, Blackford County Clerk Laura Coons, Judge Dean Young and Judge John Forcum along with Huntington County Clerk Fran Felts, Judge Thomas Hakes and Judge Jeffrey Heffelfinger.  Justice Sullivan said, “This is a major accomplishment and the people of Blackford and Huntington Counties should be proud of the hard work done by their Clerks and Judges and their staffs to make it happen.  Having this advanced technology will mean better service for the county’s citizens, will increase public safety because of its connections to law-enforcement, and because JTAC pays for the computer software, using Odyssey will save money for the county’s taxpayers as well.”

Courts pay no installation costs, training costs, license fees, or annual maintenance costs for Odyssey.  Those costs are paid by JTAC from the proceeds of a court filing fee dedicated to the project by the General Assembly.  Odyssey is designed to be implemented statewide and is being installed without disrupting everyday court business or closing Indiana courts.  Currently, there are 23 different and unrelated court record management systems statewide and these systems do not communicate with each other.

• Odyssey is operating in 50 Indiana courts in 18 counties as of January 20, 2010.
• More than 22% of all the new cases filed in Indiana are in Odyssey.
• The busiest court in the state, Marion County “traffic court,” uses Odyssey.
• Over 250,000 traffic cases have been sent electronically to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles through Odyssey.
• 5 counties used typewriters and/or scroll books to manage court records before Odyssey.
• Indiana invested $7.7 million in the statewide licensing for Odyssey.
• Information on cases in Odyssey is available to Internet users at courts.in.gov at no cost.

Odyssey is just one of the Indiana Supreme Court’s technology improvement initiatives.  JTAC is providing Indiana courts and clerks statewide with additional computer resources to assist them in their work to better serve the public. 

• JTAC has installed computer software that sends notification of the resolution of traffic cases to the BMV electronically in every Indiana court with traffic infraction jurisdiction.
• State troopers, deputies and police officers in 148 law-enforcement agencies in Indiana are able to use scanners to issue traffic citations and warnings using computer software written by JTAC.
• All 92 Indiana counties have access to a statewide master jury list created by JTAC.
• When judges in all 92 counties issue domestic violence protection orders, software written by JTAC is used to notify local law enforcement, Indiana State Police and the FBI.
• Fifty-four Indiana counties and the Department of Health use JTAC technology to eliminate the manual entry of marriage licenses.
• Thirty-seven Indiana counties and the Department of Revenue use JTAC technology to eliminate the manual entry of tax warrants.
• To implement last year’s property tax reforms, juvenile probation officers and the Department of Child Services began using JTAC technology to eliminate handwritten applications being sent to DCS and the agency having to manually enter the data into their system to keep information on children for whom DCS will be financing services.
• JTAC developed technology for trial courts to notify federal authorities electronically about individuals who should not possess a firearm because of mental health problems.

The Indiana Supreme Court recently received three prestigious national technology and safety awards because of its many projects. The Court is the recipient of the Best Practices Award by the Association of Transportation Safety Information Professionals, the Governors Highway Safety Association Peter K. O’Rourke Special Achievement Award, and a National Center for State Courts G. Thomas Munsterman Award for Jury Innovations.  The Court has received these awards in large part because of its close working relationship on technology projects with agencies in the Daniels Administration, including, the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, the Indiana Office of Technology, the Department of Homeland Security, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the Indiana Department of Revenue, and the Indiana State Police. 

For more information on the Indiana Supreme Court’s technology projects visit courts.in.gov/jtac.