By MATT LAMB
Insider Staff Writer
Cumbersome systems are often slow to change, but when it became apparent that North Carolina’s counties would be transitioning from traditional paper court filings to a digital system, Moore County set out to prepare.
With the eCourts rollout coming online this past fall, Moore County Clerk of Superior Court Todd Maness recently had a chance to take stock of his office’s continued success with the new platform. The suite of products allows for online court document filing for attorneys and self-represented litigants alongside a public access portal that provides the general public the ability to search for court dates and records, or make payments for fines and fees.
Developed by Texas-based Tyler Technologies, eCourts is a cloud-based system that integrates court records — formerly paperwork — like arrest warrants, traffic citations, child custody disputes and domestic violence cases onto a digitized network.
Following a measured track-by-track rollout, eCourts will officially be the program of record in all 100 counties by the end of 2025.
While the system’s implementation has been relatively pain-free in Moore County, areas on the forefront of the release experienced some initial growing pains.
In 2019, Tyler Tech. won a nearly 10-year $100 million contract to develop and implement eCourts and train and support court personnel.
In February 2023, eCourts went live in Harnett, Johnston, Lee and Wake counties as a pilot program. Shortly after, the platform was besieged with claims of flaws and glitches.
A class action lawsuit was eventually filed in federal district court, blaming Tyler Tech. and eCourts for several wrongful detentions. Individuals were allegedly arrested several times for the same warrant or after a judge had previously dismissed charges. Additionally, some defendants reported being unable to post bond following arrest.
While other areas dealt with issues, Maness said that Moore County employees got ahead of the curve by working with clerks and their staff throughout the state. “I made it mandatory for employees to go training. I went to training. I sent clerks to other counties that were doing it well to learn.
“I went to Vance and Harnett County and talked with clerks all over the state to see what was good and what was bad. We left the bad stuff and took everything good that we could take and implemented it here with what works.”
Maness said that eCourts was the most significant change in the judicial system in 40 years, and that caused some early apprehension.
“At first, I think, people were hesitant and cautious,” he said. “The people who have had the hardest time were the folks who had been in the system the longest. They’ve been doing it with paper for 30 years, and then you are switching it up.
“But, I can tell you that having the training for the attorneys and having good staff across the board, we have been able to mitigate the hard times. I’m not saying there are not growing pains; there will always be hiccups in the system. People are people. But we alleviated a lot of that by doing good training.”
In addition to the preemptive efforts, Maness attributes the relatively unerring launch to the men and women who comprise the county’s judicial system.
“I’ve got a whole cast of really good people that go out of their way to help people, and that’s how it should be,” he said. “I’ve got people that care about their jobs, and they want to serve our citizens.”
Contact Matt Lamb at (910) 693-2479 or mlamb@thepilot.com.
