COUNTY PONDERS AUTOMATED COURT RECORDS

JACKSON -- If Cape Girardeau County puts its own money into a state court automation system, it wants assurances other counties won't get a free ride.

County commissioners shared this and other concerns about the move to automated court records with judges of the 32nd Judicial Circuit Thursday at the commission chambers.

The state wants to electronically link all 45 judicial circuits by 2004.

Cape Girardeau County commissioners said they believed that under the 1994 legislation authorizing automation, the state was the pay for the entire project.

However, the Office of State Courts Administrator has asked counties to pay for computers and infrastructure to hook up to the state's main system. Such an expenditure would cost the county an estimated $63,963.

"It is one of those unfunded mandates and that is what bothers me," said Commissioner Larry Bock.

Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones said some other counties have indicated they will refuse to purchase the equipment, while others simply can't afford it.

"Say we pay our share but Boone County doesn't and Maries County can't, and the court automation program pays for theirs," Jones said. "Do you think we'll get our money back?

"We want to be treated exactly like everyone else."

However, Jones told the judges the county has the money to spend if it must.

The project is being funded by fees paid by those who file cases in state court. The $7-per-case charge has been in effect for three years and is expected to raise $4.5 million statewide before it expires in 2004.

Fees raised in Cape Girardeau County so far have totalled $128,000, with another $300,000 expected over the next seven years. Circuit Judge John Grimm stressed that the funds are fees paid by users of the court system, not county revenues.

Grimm said the equipment is needed. Most of the computers in use at court offices, he said, were purchased between five and 10 years ago. With few exceptions, those computers can't be hooked up to the statewide system.

"With how quickly things change, most of this stuff is simply not adaptable to the new technology," Grimm said.

Associate Judge Peter Statler said his clerks are using equipment which is obsolete.

"We are going to have to spend a lot of money to replace these things anyway," Statler said.

In the past few years, the courts only rarely purchased new equipment, Grimm said, in part to learn the state's demands for compatibility and in part to save money. Of the $69,000 budgeted for the circuit clerk's office for new equipment over the last five years, only $24,000 was spent.

"Far from asking for a big windfall, we want to get to where we might have been had we done more over the past few years," Grimm said.

The court automation program is already in effect in several pilot counties. Perry County, which is also a part of the 32nd Judicial Circuit, recently connected to the system.

Grimm hopes the system will be in place in Cape Girardeau County by late 1998.

Automation will allow anyone with a computer and a modem to access public records. Associate Judge Gary Kamp said this will reduce demands on court clerks to pull files.

Eventually, the program is intended to eliminate the need for most hard files, freeing up much storage space.