Home » News » Press Releases » 2005 » Plano Courts System Goes Paperless

For Immediate Release: July 1, 2005 Contact: Vicki Smith Municipal Court Phone: (972) 941-2176 Plano Courts System Goes Paperless On May 1, the paper shuffle ended for Plano Municipal Court when Court Administration spearheaded a project to integrate their case management system with a software application for imaging and workflow. The software application is VisiFlow, distributed by Vista Solutions Group. The new system allows the Clerk’s Office, Judges, City Prosecutors and Police Department access to all case information and court documents with the touch of a button from their respective offices. The biggest benefit to users of the Imaging/Workflow application has been the efficiency in case availability for processing. Imaging/Workflow allows for immediate access to a case for either processing or providing information and documents to our customers. The clerks can retrieve case information from the system without ever having to leave their workstation. The lobby receptionist can accept and scan documents into the system, thus saving time for customers dropping off their documents without having to stand in line. In one instance, a man dropped off his DSC (Driving Safety Course) paperwork to the receptionist, calling back 30 minutes later worried he had not signed his certificate. The clerk handling the phone call was able to inform him immediately that he had not only signed the certificate, but that his case was already dismissed. Prior to the paperless environment, the clerk would have put the defendant on hold to locate the document from either the lobby or mail area, before she could give the defendant the information; and the case would not have been dismissed during that time period. A second benefit has been the overall efficiency in providing information for Open Records requests. Until the system was in place, the Clerk’s Office would receive the records request; complete a Warehouse Request Form for the case file; forward the request to Records Management, who would send someone to the Warehouse where closed court files are stored, to retrieve the case file. The case file would be brought to the Clerk’s Office to copy the requested record; then returned to Records Management to be re-filed back at the Warehouse. With the click of a button, imaging provides immediate access to the documents at any given moment from the Clerk’s workstation. Prior to Imaging/Workflow, it would take a minimum of four hours each day just to open and retrieve the case file for all incoming mail, before it could even be processed. Now, with Imaging/Workflow, the mail processing time is virtually cut in half. The new system has also reduced the risk of lost documents by providing greater control measures. As documents are filed with the Court, they are scanned to the case file. System generated reports track every case and alert staff when a case is ready for warrant processing. Since there are no hardcopy files to misfile, warrant processing is neither delayed nor prevented. According to Vicki Smith, “The workflow application contains modules necessary to monitor this workflow. We can see where the cases are and how long they have been in a particular queue awaiting processing. With more than 100,000 new cases filed each year, imaging and workflow make managing this size caseload much more efficient. It is virtually impossible to lose a case file. Even if the system were to go down, the City’s Technology Services Department has implemented measures to ensure a back-up of the system is available." Sheila Heugel, Courts System Administrator and Kristen Briggs, Court Supervisor (formerly the Senior System Support Coordinator) were instrumental in the implementation of the project. The biggest challenge they faced according to Sheila was “The two systems (case management and imaging/workflow) were not as integrated as we expected.” Now that they have familiarized themselves with the system, Sheila said “We will continue with the activity-based management philosophy which includes both analyzing and streamlining case processing to improve our service and control costs as it relates to the Imaging/Workflow system.”