The Department of Judicial Administration — better known as the Clerk’s Office — has been told to propose a 12% cut as well. DJA’s only option to achieve the budget target is through a combination of service cuts and increased revenues.
All outside phone and email service will be cut. In other words, no one will answer the office’s customer service telephone line. That’s 71,517 calls a year or 370 per business day. No one will respond to Eservices and customer service emails. That’s 18,410 email questions a year or 84 a day. Savings: $357,500.
The staff worries these cuts will particularly frustrate those who call with questions about e-filing or the web ECR system, two very efficient services that have helped streamline DJA operations. The most commonly asked questions from the public range from: “How do I obtain copies of documents?” and “How do I get letters testamentary?” to “How do I get my right to vote back, and do you have the forms?” and “What will happen if I don’t show up at my hearing?” It will no longer be possible to verify a criminal conviction by telephone. With these cuts, customers will have to interact with the Clerk’s Office in person or utilize information available on the clerk and court’s website.
The Clerk’s Office will also need to shorten its hours — most likely to 9–4, with a closure over the noon hour. Savings: $260,000. And it will need to reduce the amount of information input into ECR when documents are docketed, to the level consistent with state standards. Each entry will become so brief and non-descriptive that individual documents will have to be viewed to determine what they are. This will come at a cost to the public per document viewed, as well as the time required to search the electronic file. Savings: $260,000.
On the revenue side, the Clerk’s Office will need to increase the faulty-document fee from $15 to $20 and increase the non-compliance fee (failure to follow the case schedule or bring a case to timely completion) from $30 to $50. Revenue: $100,650.
The Clerk’s Office also plans to eliminate its only non-mandatory program, Step Up — the only domestic violence program in the county dedicated to address teen violence against parents. Savings: $210,000.
—Judge Susan Craighead
and Judge Bruce Hilyer
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