Justice of the Peace courts process thousands of misdemeanor case files annually. These case files can include everything from small claims cases and traffic tickets to eviction cases. These case files may need to be retained for many years and must be retrieved should the case ever need to be reopened. The need to retrieve these files can be extremely time consuming for the JP Court’s staff as they try to navigate to the correct box or filing location. The boxes and filing systems needed for managing these case files takes up a large amount of storage space. Additionally, pulling the files wastes a huge amount of employee time. Often these files are poorly inventoried and may also be stored in remote locations. These files may also be protected by HIPAA and other regulations and the JP courts are responsible for properly securing the information regarding the release of documents from these files. The solution to better managing these case files is to have them digitized and then to store the digital images in an Electronic Content Management system (ECM).
Here is the process we use to digitize JP Case files:
Steps in the process:
1) An assessment is made of the documents and indexing requirements with the JP Courts records management staff.
2) A complete inventory of the files is created.
3) A cost proposal is presented to the JP’s management team for approval.
4) Upon receiving a Purchase Order from the JP.
a. The boxes of Case Files are moved to our scanning center.
b. The files are prepared for scanning and scanned on our highspeed scanners.
c. Indexing is accomplished using database information from the JP Court’s information system whenever possible or manually indexed.
d. The scanned documents were uploaded to a cloud based or on-premise Electronic Content Management (ECM) system.
e. When requested the ECM system is linked to the court’s information system allowing the record management staff to retrieve the files without having to log into the ECM system.
f. The scanned files are returned to the court for long tern storage or shredded.
Benefits of the solution:
· Retrieval times were reduced from hours or days to minutes.
· Staff utilization was targeted to more valuable tasks.
· A disaster Recovery solution was implemented by digitizing the files.
· Auditing the access to these files is now electronically secured and tracked.
The Cost versus Value Decision:
The cost versus value decision has been simple for our JP clients. The wasted employee time looking for records and the storage space issues had to be addressed. The digitization of the Case Files solved these and many other issues. The return on investment was completely realized by the elimination of wasted employee time.
Contact us for help:
If you would like to learn more about our JP Case File scanning experience or the other record digitization strategies that we have developed for our clients please give us a call or email us, we will be glad to help you.
ECM Today!
(833) 227-6552
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.ecmtoday.com
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