Project Background
With over 300 courts in approximately 200 locations, courts of limited jurisdiction are the workhorses of Washington's judicial system.
CLJ courts process about 2 million cases every year - approximately 87% of the state's judicial caseload. Along with the enormous caseload, the district and municipal courts collect more than $250 million annually in fines, fees, and assessments that help fund the justice system.
The existing case management and accounting system used by district and municipal courts is aging 1980's technology that meets the basic case management needs of the courts, probation offices, and criminal justice partners, but is unable to support the new and emerging needs of electronic filing and electronic document management. The existing DISCIS system is also unable to fill the gaps in business functionality related to areas such as accounting, probation and supervision management, and electronic access to records, etc. With ever-increasing workloads and tight budgets, today's courts and probation offices are in dire need of a comprehensive and integrated modern system that can keep pace with the needs of today's busy courts - and the expectations of the public - to efficiently manage the thousands of cases they deal with every day, and to help them fairly and effectively administer justice.
Under the leadership of the state Supreme Court's Judicial Information System Committee (JISC), the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) operates the statewide Judicial Information System (JIS) that supports the daily operations of the courts. JIS clients include judicial officers, court managers and staff, probation officers, local law enforcement, prosecutors, defense attorneys, the Washington State Patrol, Department of Corrections, Department of Licensing, and the Secretary of State.
Replacing a major legacy system is a multi-year effort and a multi-million dollar investment. In 2020, the CLJ CMS Project contracted with Tyler Technologies for a commercial off-the-shelf suite of products for case management, probation, and eFiling for Washington's district and municipal courts and probation offices.
Project Governance Structure - How Decisions Get Made
