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Union County courts embrace electronic conversion, while some report snags

UNION COUNTY, N.C. — The e-court system implemented in Union County last October is drawing some complaints from defense attorneys, but court officials say it was a necessary change and people are getting used to it.

The eCourt system is designed to streamline court processes by digitizing case management. However, some local attorneys, like Zachary Cohen, have expressed frustration with the system, citing problems such as incorrect court dates and lack of notifications for attorneys.

“With criminal district court, with the volume of cases we handle in this county—it’s awful. It’s just awful,” said Zachary Cohen, a criminal defense attorney.

“We don’t have the access that the clerks, the DA’s office, even the public defenders’ office online with the system and it really caused a lot of issues,” Cohen said. “They thought it would make it more efficient but it’s not.”

Wendy Maynard, the Elected Superior Court Clerk for Union County, acknowledged the complaints, noting, “The electronic process does take additional time.”

Erin Hucks, the Chief District Court Judge in Union County, stated, “I haven’t heard of anything like that in Union County. Not to say it hasn’t happened—but nobody has brought that to my attention.”

“Updating the system we had was necessary and inevitable, Judge Hucks said. “You can’t expect that the entire world has technology and the court system is going to dig its feet in and not change.”

It feels good,” Maynard added. I feel like every day we are getting stronger, learning the system more. We are staying caught up. And everything is done in live time.”

On Monday, February 3rd, the North Carolina Judicial Branch will roll out eCourts to 13 more counties. That will bring up the county count to 62, with the eventual goal of going to electronic records in all 100 counties in North Carolina.


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