DA, judge look at impacts of online court system in Mecklenburg County

CHARLOTTE — In about a month, Mecklenburg County’s court system moves into the digital age, switching from doing things on paper, to a majority of business being done online.

Channel 9′s Hunter Sáenz has been covering the transition for months, and he spoke with District Attorney Spencer Merriweather and Judge Elizabeth Trosch about the impacts the new Odyssey system will have.

With Odyssey, the public and attorneys can file and access court documents without having to make a trip to the courthouse.

But Channel 9 has reported that the system hasn’t gone smoothly in some pilot counties, so we wanted to see if Mecklenburg County is ready.

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Sáenz asked Merriweather that question directly: “Are we ready?”

“Not yet. However, we will get to the point where we’re going to be ready,” Merriweather told Sáenz.

His prosecutors and staff are undergoing training now, but he knows there will be problems.

“I can be excited about the prospect of some new technology and also be cautious about the impact that it could have on the county with the largest volume of criminal cases in the state,” Merriweather said.

Some of the possible impacts include smaller dockets in the beginning of the rollout, cases down or being rescheduled, and court closures, like in the case of at least one pilot county.

Chief District court Judge Elizabeth Trosch says she believes that won’t happen. Sáenz asked if she foresees any potential closures to figure out the new system in Mecklenburg County.

“I do not,” Trosch said. “I do not predict that there will be any closures because we’ve learned some lessons from the pilot counties.”

She says the glitches that caused problems in several pilot counties have been fixed. Her staff at the courthouse is in training now, but she does anticipate challenges.

“We’re all learning, and while we have learned a lot, we will learn a lot more once we go live and we are in this system full-time every day,” Trosch said. “So please, be patient with us.”

While problems have existed, there have been many successes with the program.

The papers will be ditched on Oct. 9. Until then, we’ll be keeping an eye on training.

You can learn how to use the system by clicking this link.

(WATCH: ‘Going to be a nightmare’: Lawyers in Charlotte still not trained on new e-court system)