News

eCourts goes live in Henderson County

By Bill Moss, Published: August 8, 2024

The new electronic court filing system that’s gone live in Henderson County allows the public to search and download court files from home, requires attorneys to file cases and motions electronically and does away with millions of 8½x11 sheets of paper.

Judges not only can sign orders electronically; they’re now prohibited from signing an order on paper. The system, which has been pushed aggressively by the state Supreme Court’s chief justice, Paul Newby, has gone live in 38 of the state’s 100 counties. Henderson County was in tract 5 of 10 tracts statewide.

“eCourts is basically a new fully integrated electronic filing and record-keeping system that’s being rolled out in the court system statewide,” Henderson County Clerk of Superior Court J. Tyler Ray explained. “It went live here on July 22 so electronic filing is now required for all attorneys and is available to the public through a system called efile and serve.”

It’s taken some getting used to, Ray acknowledged.

“It’s a new way of getting information around in the court system and it requires a lot of clicks,” he said. “I think everybody has had a pretty good attitude about it. I’ve heard mixed reviews. Some people are really enjoying it. Being able to file something from their office is pretty handy. But at the same time it’s very very different. Change is hard but people seem to be taking it in stride.”

He emphasized, too, that the clerk’s office is ready to help guide people through it.

“The clerk’s office is still open and we’ll always be open and members of the public can come into the office to file paper pleadings if they would like,” he said. “We’ll take those, scan those in and create an electronic file, which will then be available for viewing on the portal. Moving forward, the electronic file will be the official record in the case.”

To access the portal, go to nccourts.gov and click on the services tab at the top of the page. A dropdown menu shows options “for accessing the portal, filing electronically and even taking care of traffic citations on line,” Ray said. “Folks can ask for reductions or dismissal on line.”

The clerk’s office has prioritized the newest cases for scanning.

“All pending cases should have a case file on the portal,” Ray said. The digitized file contains “a summary of events that have occurred but not all of them have the documents uploaded yet. We’re working on that,” he said. “If it’s got a court hearing coming up soon it probably does have the documents uploaded. We’re working on that and I ask folks to be patient with us as we get all those files uploaded.”

He added that by law, private personal information is redacted from records published on the internet and juvenile matters, which are not public now, will not be viewable on the internet.

The state Administrative Office of the Courts has been working on eCourts for years, Ray said, and has worked hard to make the portal user friendly.

“I just really encourage folks to visit nccourts and look at the electronic court services page,” he said. “There’s training available there, frequently asked questions, lots of good information for folks who want to use the portal and learn how the system works.”