The North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys has asked State Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby and Ryan Boyce, director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, to halt implementation of eCourts.
The state paid Texas-based Tyler Technologies $100 million to install its eCourts program to replace a 1980s-era mainframe and paper-based system that had become obsolete.
Implementation began a little more than a year ago with four pilot counties, Wake, Johnston, Harnett and Lee, and has since expanded to 13 others, including Mecklenburg and smaller counties in the eastern part of the state.
Attorneys and court personnel have complained the new system has slowed things down and Tyler Technologies is facing a class-action lawsuit over alleged wrongful detentions due to eCourts.
In an email, Kimberly Spahos, executive director of the Conference of District Attorneys, told WUNC the group addressed their concerns at a meeting this week of the Joint Committee on Justice and Public Safety.
Spahos said the representatives of the conference specifically noted that court officials need to resolve "latency issues" and resolve concerns over redaction of sensitive information from court documents before the eCourts rollout continues.
"AOC has worked to address every issue we have raised with eCourts and the implementation of new technology," Spahos said in the email response to WUNC's inquiry.
"Unfortunately," she added, "many issues still remain, which caused the Conference to request a pause in the technology implementation until the needed resources are provided and several other issues are resolved."
Ten more counties from the north Piedmont and Triad region, including Guilford, are scheduled to go live with eCourts at the end of the month.
AOC has not responded to a request for comment.
