Indiana Supreme Court selects CA Services as integration partner to link courts, police, motor vehicles, other agencies

Computer Associates International, Inc (CA), today announced that the Indiana Supreme Court has selected CA Services to design and implement an advanced Case Management System (CMS) solution that will dramatically streamline judicial and law enforcement processes and link the trial court system to police operations, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, and other state and local agencies.

With the new CMS, court officials will only need to enter case-related information into a central database once to make it available within 24 hours to judges, prosecutors, lawyers and clerks in more than 300 courts across the state`s 92 counties. The CMS will track all developments in all cases pending in Indiana courts and forward relevant information automatically to other agencies for appropriate action. Additionally, the state-of-the-art CMS will enable citizens and their lawyers to check the status of their civil and criminal cases via the Internet.

The new system will therefore ensure more rapid and effective prosecution of criminal and civil cases, eliminating the errors and delays that often plague bureaucratic processes. It will also reduce the cost of such prosecutions, saving taxpayer dollars even as it enhances public safety. The increased transparency that the system provides will also help to ensure citizens` rights and aid litigating attorneys in managing their caseloads.

CA Services was selected after an extensive five-month review of proposals from 34 other integration service providers.

"Of all the proposals we received for a case management solution, CA Services delivered the strongest combination of features, as well as extraordinary access to resources," said Kurt Snyder, Director and Counsel of Trial Court Technology for the Indiana Supreme Court. "For the first time, all our courts will have the opportunity to work as one, enhancing public safety and expediting law enforcement as never before. This is the most significant advance in the Indiana court system in 30 years."

In addition to giving judges instant access to defendants` past criminal records and allowing lawyers to monitor their cases, track exhibits and witnesses, and file documents electronically, the CMS will interface with the state`s child support system, alert the Bureau of Motor Vehicles of traffic citations, streamline transfer of inmate information to state prison, send notices of protective orders and warrants to state police, advise probation officers when prisoners are released, and perform many other intra-agency tasks currently requiring paperwork and faxes to complete. The new system will also collect statewide court statistics, relieving court clerks of the burden of compiling and analysing data.

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Previously, digital communications between the courts and other state agencies - as well as among the courts themselves - was minimal. Because Indiana`s courts are locally funded, different courts had different case management systems, hampering communications. Some smaller courts had no computer systems at all. Paper-based workflows were slow and error-prone - especially since information often had to be entered by hand into as many as seven separate systems. As a result, critical information could be missing from case files and judges often had no access to defendants` criminal records in other counties.

The comprehensive, feature-rich CMS solution being provided to the state by CA Services leverages the power of several of CA`s acclaimed technologies, including CleverPath, Unicenter, AllFusion, and Advantage. The CMS provides portal-style Web access to system functions, simplifying implementation and ensuring the ease of use necessary for widespread adoption by non-technical users with minimal training. The system will also integrate tightly with a wide range of existing court and agency systems. All supporting network and system infrastructure will be monitored from a central console to ensure the CMS`s end-to-end performance and reliability.

Initially, CA Services will be configuring the solution and building custom interfaces to other state agencies before turning to statewide deployment. The first county to come online will be Marion County, which includes the city of Indianapolis and handles the Indiana judicial system`s largest caseload. Other counties will immediately follow with the entire process expected to last through 2005.

The state eventually plans to extend the CMS to its appellate courts, including the Indiana Supreme Court, to further streamline the state`s justice system.

"The State of Indiana`s CMS offers a prime example of how technology can be effectively applied to significantly improve the quality of life in society as a whole," said Bob Dinkel, senior vice-president, CA Services. "CA Services is honoured to have been selected for this ground-breaking project and we look forward to working closely with all of the state agencies involved over the coming years to ensure its successful completion."