Washington Courts: Press Release Detail

Seven Washington counties launch modern system for superior courts and county clerk offices

Superior courts and county clerk offices in Cowlitz, Grays Harbor, Klickitat, Mason, Pacific, Skamania and Wahkiakum counties this month have implemented a modern case management system, Odyssey, in the broadest launch to date of the new statewide system.

This month’s implementation is the fifth phase, or “event,” of the statewide rollout of the Odyssey system to Washington superior courts and county clerk offices, which began in 2015 and will be complete in 2018. With this launch, 16 counties are now using the system. Only two counties, King and Pierce, are not involved in the rollout, choosing instead to conduct their own implementations of case-management systems.

 The system is next scheduled to be implemented in Clallam, Island, Jefferson, Kitsap,
San Juan, Skagit, and Whatcom counties in October of this year.

The Odyssey system provides modern information-sharing abilities between courts across the state, as well as vital case management functions not available on the 1970s case processing system still being used by most Washington superior courts and county clerk offices. Though members of the public and businesses may experience some minor changes in their interactions with the superior courts and county clerk offices, the primary difference for Washingtonians will be behind the scenes in better communication between courts from different counties, more efficient case management and monitoring, much improved scheduling, better access to data, and more.

“I would like to congratulate and thank the staff of the superior courts and county clerk offices in the seven counties that launched Odyssey this month,” said Washington Supreme Court Chief Justice Mary Fairhurst, who serves as Chair of the Judicial Information System Committee (JISC). “Their commitment, dedication and hard work combined with the efforts of their partners at the Administrative Office of the Courts and Tyler Technologies made this implementation a success and brought modern tools into their courthouses. We are pleased and excited that nearly half the counties in the state are now using Odyssey in their superior courts and county clerk offices.”

Staff members in the implementing counties have been hard at work for many months preparing for the transition to the modern system. The current case processing system used by most Washington superior courts was built by the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) in the 1970s and was considered cutting edge at that time, but is now expensive to maintain and repair and does not have the badly needed functionality of a modern system.

Oversight committees made up of court staff, judges, court officials and IT workers chose the Odyssey system after a lengthy process of documenting court needs and evaluating modern systems available on the market. Odyssey was developed by Tyler Technologies, a Texas company, specifically for court case management.

More information on the SC-CMS (Superior Court Case Management System) Project, including a statewide implementation map with dates, can be found at http://www.courts.wa.gov/?fa=home.sub&org=sccms&layout=2.

CONTACT:  Lorrie Thompson, senior communications officer, Administrative Office of the Courts, (360) 705-5347, Lorrie.Thompson@courts.wa.gov