Court puts cases, docket online

 

Court's Web site Check out case information from the 243rd District Court on the Internet at www.iDocket.com

Internet users anywhere and anytime can now find out what's happening in one of El Paso County's district courts with a few strokes of the keyboard.

IDocket.com now features court information from the 243rd District Court -- the only court in El Paso County to put docket and case information on the Internet.

"I think the movement is to more toward public access and to do it through the technology we now have. Ten years from now this will be pretty standard stuff," said David GuaderramaB01, judge of the 243rd District Court.

Guaderrama said he put his court's case information online because he gets constant requests from bondsmen and lawyers on the status of cases.

Guaderrama does not use the county's Justice Information Management System, or JIMS, which provides users with criminal and civil case information.

"I had my own system before JIMS came around," Guaderrama said. "I tried it for about a year ... and it wasn't working for me. We have a large docket, and we move very fast."

The iDocket.com Web site, started in 1999, gives users basic information, such as details on the court, hearing dates, parties and lawyers. Users can also perform multi-court, multi-county searches at no charge.

So far, court information from 20 Texas counties is accessible on the Web site. For $29.95, subscribers have access to the court's calendar information and can perform advanced searches on the Web site.

It costs the county nothing to be a part of the site. The county will receive 20 percent of every subscription when users indicate El Paso County as their main county of interest.

"We're negotiating with the entire county to come on," said Armando Balderrama, CEO of iDocket.com.

But so far, the Council of Judges has not decided whether to put all case information online.

"I know the Council of Judges is very cautious about the idea," County Judge Dolores Briones said. "They want to be careful on how much information they put on the Internet. They want to protect not just the confidentiality but people's identity."

On the JIMS system, available only in the district clerk's office, users can find not only case information but also birth dates, home addresses, Social Security numbers and criminal defendants' height, weight, ethnicity and eye color.

Jennifer Shubinski may be reached at jshubinski@elpasotimes.com