In the past, agencies that needed information about court cases had to go to the County offices and request the information. While some access was available to view Civil case information via the Web, it was limited and no data was available for Domestic, Criminal and Appeals cases. Case Information Online provides public access to case data including docket details. County Agencies have access to more data including images of certain court documents.
The Franklin County Clerk of Courts sought to provide access to Civil, Domestic, Appeal, and Criminal cases via the Web. They also wanted to provide easy access to Court schedules. The Clerk needed flexibility in what is displayed and how it is accessed to handle different types of users.
Working closely with MAPSYS and the Franklin County Data Center, the Franklin County Clerk of Courts launched a web based Case Information Online application utilizing IBM Websphere and Java.
“Thank you! The new web site is great for finding the dispositions of criminal cases. I no longer have to call your clerks or come down to locate the information.”
The application provides a search by Name and Case type across all Courts or within a court. Advanced search functions also allow searches within a date range.
Rosa Barker, Information Technology Director with the Franklin County Clerk of Courts said, “With a limited budget and a Case Management system over 16 years old, we did not think we could publish a site, which would be so well structured and easy to use. Since we published our new Case Information Online application we have been receiving compliments such as:
“This is a GREAT web site! It’s easy to use and instructional!”
“Your web site is great!! At times, other counties web sites are difficult to access. The Franklin County enables the user to access all of the Courts @ one web site. I was surprised & pleased with the updates installed since I accessed Franklin County’s records several months ago. I appreciate your efforts!”
“Thank you so very much for your easy to navigate and user friendly web site.”
“I just want to commend you on such a user friendly, informative web site. My occupation requires me to obtain information on civil cases filed in several counties in Ohio and this site is by far the easiest to access information I need. Great job!”
The number of cases returned can be altered by using the Search, so they can retrieve the most appropriate number of records. The format is simple, making it easy to read.
Case Information Online provides all the information about a case with one click. Many Case applications require the user to scroll through page after page of docket detail to get to the information you need. Unless the case is very large, all case information is displayed immediately.
CIO provides different views based on need. The public can access CIO through the Clerk’s website and sees the standard view. Internal agencies access CIO via a secured log-in and see information not made public such as images of court documents. Other agencies leverage a CIO interface that allows them to pass a case number and do a direct display of a case from their systems.
