Painesville Muni to offer e-filing via Ohio Supreme Court technology grant – News-Herald.com

The Ohio Supreme Court has awarded Lake County courts a combined $82,642 in technology grants.

Lake County Common Pleas Courts General Division was awarded $38,500 to update the probation departments content management system to collect more data points to improve evidence-based decision making.

This is phenomenal, Craig Berry, chief probation officer of the Lake County Adult Probation Department, said of the grant. Right now, we have multiple systems. This will be a better system a statewide system. We will be able to track information throughout the state of Ohio, whether its for opiates or any other case. Well be able to track the types of offenses, the outcomes and the programs to make better decisions on who goes to jail, who gets treatment or who gets community service.

Painesville Municipal Court was given a $15,852 grant to upgrade the courts CMS to incorporate e-filing capabilities.

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The court is working toward going paper on demand, said Painesville Municipal Courts Clerk of Court/Court Administrator Nick Cindric. What we mean by paper on demand is, if you still want something printed, we can print what you need, but we are going to be accepting e-filing now. Attorneys and the general public will be able to file electronically. Its also going to be made live. The whole idea is to make the court accessible.

We started scanning a few years ago, but you have to have the servers in place and scanners large enough to handle the quantity, so the judge and I are really excited about this grant.

E-filing is expected to be in place at Painesville Municipal Court by the end of summer, Cindric said.

The other local grant recipients were Lake County Common Pleas Courts Domestic Relations Division and its Juvenile Division.

The Domestic Relations Division received $18,460 to update the courts website, while the Juvenile Division was awarded $9,830 to upgrade the courts CMS finance module to allow the court to enter and track court costs.

Seventy state court projects competed for more than $2.8 million in technology grant money, said Ohio Supreme Court spokesman Bret Crow.

Ohio courts were asked to submit one funding request for up to two separate projects. Courts within an entity deemed to be in fiscal emergency or fiscal watch by the Ohio auditor and those that had not received a technology grant in the past were given priority.

Technology grants increase access to justice to more Ohioans and remove barriers to the efficient and effective administration of justice for local courts, Chief Justice Maureen OConnor said in a news release. Without this initiative, many much-needed technology improvements in courts around Ohio would not occur.

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Painesville Muni to offer e-filing via Ohio Supreme Court technology grant - News-Herald.com