Service digitizes files in clerk’s office
The Jefferson County circuit clerk’s office is moving forward in 2022 with a process created to simplify its services for obtaining real estate documents and other records.
“We are very excited about this technology for processing and managing our land records,” Jefferson County Circuit Clerk Barbara Collins said during a presentation Tuesday. “We now have the ability to digitally scan all recorded documents.”
The program service, called MONARCH, went live Tuesday morning. All daily documents were scanned into the system, generating a digital image and eliminating the need for manual key entry, photocopying and book storage.
“In the past, someone would bring in a deed or mortgage, power of attorney and have it recorded,” said Collins. “We would process the document. It would be an overnight process and they would have the document returned the next day.”
With the new program, Collins said, the document would be processed and returned on the same day.
The efficiency of MONARCH will allow title companies to view documents in a timely manner, according to Collins.
Having gone through weeks of training, Collins and her staff agreed that the new workflow has cut down on time and will save on expenses because they are eliminating the physical need of books, which, Collins said, were expensive.
“We’re actually running out of space to hold the books that hold the mortgages and the deeds,” said Collins. “With the old documents, we would actually have to file stamp it, give it a number and put it into the computer and file the physical document.”
The new program autogenerates the number. Once the clerk puts in the customer’s information, all the information is saved and filed in an image server
repository that can be accessed by the city clerk’s office.
Collins was appointed to serve the remainder of the term of her predecessor, Lafayette Woods Sr., who retired in October.
Collins said it was Woods’ idea to implement this program, a vision he had been working on for more than 10 years.
“Mr. Lafayette Woods started working on the program in 2009 to help our office,” she said. “Now process land records, mortgages, state tax liens, medical liens and federal tax liens can be recorded.”
According to a December release from the ABC Co., which has partnered with Fidlar Technologies Software to provide this latest technology service for Jefferson County, the fully automated process is run through a high level of secured file transfers.
The clerk’s office, which is a repository of records such as deeds, deeds of trust, mortgages, release deeds and powers of attorney, will receive daily confirmation email reports of all document image counts.
All deeds, mortgages, conveyances of lands and buildings within Jefferson County are recorded in the circuit clerk’s office.
“I feel very good about the program for the citizens of Jefferson County,” said Collins, who added that there are still a few problems that they are working out. “Bring in your documents and you will be able to receive them in an efficient manner.”