Digitizing criminal files will save $100K a year
READING >> Berks County Clerk of Courts James P. Troutman has good news for the county’s taxpayers — an annual savings in court costs of up to $100,000.
Troutman’s office handles every record created as part of the county’s criminal court system. Everything related to a criminal case — from arrest reports to motions by prosecutors and defense attorneys and orders issued by judges — are contained in a paper court file held in his office.
“We have court records going back to the 1800s,” Troutman said.
In addition to having a paper record, Troutman’s office also copied those files to microfilm for safekeeping. That costs an average of $40,000 to $50,000 per year. The county also stores court records on the county’s mainframe computer, which also is expensive, he said.
The action by Troutman will allow court administration to dedicate two to four employees to other court duties now that they are no longer required to enter criminal court records into the county’s computer system. That’s an additional annual savings of $50,000 to $60,000, Troutman said.
Beginning last month the county has stopped microfilming criminal court files and is using an Electronic Records Management System, or ERMS, to make digital images of every page of those criminal case files and store them on the state-funded Common Pleas Case Management System, or CPCMS.
Complicated criminal case files, like homicide, aggravated assault, narcotics investigations or racketeering prosecutions, can literally fill boxes, requiring them
to be wheeled from the district attorney’s office to courtrooms for every hearing in those cases.
Digital imaging allows parties in criminal cases to view documents by logging on to the CPCMS system, sharply reducing the need to have the case file on hand.
And, storing documents on the CPCMS is free to the county, Troutman said.
“What we’re excited about is that with the imaging being done at the time we do a docket entry it provides access almost immediately to everyone connected to CPCMS, which includes adult probation and other court personnel,” Troutman said.
The county prothonotary’s office, which handles civil cases like lawsuits, real estate disputes and divorces, has been imaging files for almost two decades.
Troutman said there are aspects of the criminal court system that differ sharply from the civil court records maintained by Prothonotary Jonathan “JD” Del Collo and his staff.
“For one thing, at the prothonotary’s office, people and lawyers pay up front in order to file lawsuits or other documents,” Troutman said.
In a criminal case, everything goes on to what is called a bill of costs. If a defendant is acquitted, or if they get an extended sentence of 10 to 20 years or life in prison those criminal court costs may never get paid.
“The cost of a criminal court prosecution normally is born by the taxpayers,” he said. “That’s another reason I love this new system. It makes this office more efficient and it will save taxpayers about $1 million over the next 10 years.”
Del Collo said his predecessor, Marianne Sutton, started using digital imaging in 2002.
“Today we have an entirely paperless system,” Del Collo said. “If someone comes in to file something we scan it and hand the original right back to them.”