A new and improved online system went up allowing you to look up Winnebago County (Rockford, IL) criminal records, civil lawsuits, traffic tickets and other court filings.
Officials say a public-records search is one of the many functions made available by the $6.9 million court case management system.
The system allows the instant updating of court files and easier data sharing among police, courts and corrections officers. It eventually may allow for the electronic filing of lawsuits and guilty pleas.
The bottom line, Circuit Clerk Tom Klein said: FullCourt Enterprise allows the county’s court functions to work more expediently and efficiently, which will save employees time and taxpayers time and money.
FullCourt is also more intuitive and user-friendly than the Clericus Magnus system — installed in 1999 by Jano Data Systems — it replaced.
“We were using software in 2010 that was developed in the 1970s,” said Gus Gentner, chief information officer for the county’s IT department, who oversaw the installation of the system. “This system is very easy to use. We have an instruction guide online, but you probably won’t need it. If you know how to use Windows, you can figure this out.”
Operational glitches have delayed the launch of the system since April 5.
“Will there still be some bumps moving forward?” Getner said Monday. “I expect there will be, as there is with any project of this size.”
Getner’s team had to convert 1.8 million cases from the Jano system to FullCourt to make them electronically searchable. Cases as far back as 1950 can be searched electronically, although more complete records are available for criminal files since 1980; civil files since 1988; and ordinance violations, traffic citations, DUI cases and conservation case since 1996.
Getner said the system will be good for at least two decades. “Will there be some hardware upgrades that we need in the meantime? Probably.”