New case management system in Superior Court

The Ventura Superior Court implemented the first phase of the new California Case Management System on March 5. The system will be used for all small claims cases. Existing small claims cases have been transferred to the new system.

Kiosks installed in the small claims lobbies of the Ventura and East County courthouses are available for those who would like to complete their small claims filings online. The document is retrieved by the filings clerk upon presentation of a special code issued by the kiosk. Electronic filing of documents over the Internet is scheduled to be available this summer.

Probate cases are scheduled to be added to the new system in approximately three weeks. Civil cases will be added three weeks after that. By the end of April, the Ventura Superior Court will be the first court in California to have the modules in operation for all three case types. Planning for future phases, which will include traffic, criminal, juvenile and family law, is in the beginning stages.

Some of the benefits of the new system include electronic, paperon-demand files that allow multiple users to access a file simultaneously; immediate data entry to ensure that all files possess the most current information; and the beginning of a transition from paper case files to electronic case files.

Benefits to court staff include access to more information and webbased technology that provides dropdown menus for entering data.

The new case management system is part of an effort to bring all superior courts statewide under the same computer system for all case types. The goal is for the superior courts in all 58 counties to be using the new case management system by 2010.