Washington Courts: Press Release Detail

Twelve Eastern Washington Counties Launch Modern Court Case Management System

Superior courts and county clerk offices in Adams, Benton, Chelan, Douglas, Ferry, Grant, Kittitas, Lincoln, Okanogan, Pend Oreille, Stevens, and Walla Walla counties on Monday implemented a modern case management system, Odyssey, in the most widespread launch of the new statewide system since the rollout began in 2015.

With this week’s implementation, 35 of 37 counties are now using the Odyssey system. It is the seventh phase, or “event,” of the statewide rollout which began in 2015. Transition to the new system will be complete in November of this year when the final two counties, Clark and Spokane, will launch Odyssey. Two counties, King and Pierce, are not involved in the rollout, choosing to conduct their own implementations of case-management systems.

In addition to adding 12 counties this week, the statewide Odyssey system recently added a new audit function and a new “Judge Edition” that provides enhanced tools for judges working on the bench and in their chambers.

The Odyssey system provides modern information-sharing abilities between courts and county clerk offices across the state, as well as vital case management functions not available in the 1970s case processing system that was used by Washington superior courts and county clerk offices until modernization became a critical necessity. 

Though members of the public and businesses may experience some minor changes in their interactions with superior courts and county clerk offices using Odyssey, 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.

“Implementing a new case management system takes hard work over many months. Staff members in the county clerk offices and courts must continue working in an old system while learning and transitioning to a new one,” said Washington Supreme Court Chief Justice Mary Fairhurst, who serves as Chair of the Judicial Information System Committee (JISC). “I’d like to thank all of those staff members who spent many months making this transition happen for their courts and communities, and to the many people who served as support for the implementing courts.”

Today’s system launches were supported by IT staff members from the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), Tyler Technologies (which developed Odyssey), and staff members from other counties that have already implemented Odyssey.

The case processing system previously used by Washington superior courts and county clerk offices — SCOMIS — was built by the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) in the 1970s and was considered cutting edge at that time. However, SCOMIS became increasingly expensive to maintain and repair and did not have the badly needed functionality of a modern system.

Oversight committees made up of court staff, judges, court officials and IT workers chose Odyssey 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.