CCAP is Making Headway

Despite the impasse over the 1993-95 Biennium's lapsing mechanism, the Circuit Court Automation Project (CCAP) is making headway. According to Denis Moran, director of state courts, almost all of Wisconsin's 72 counties have implemented at least some features of CCAP. For example, at least 60 county courthouses are using CCAP's case management system for automated tracking of case events. Approximately 2,700 court employees use CCAP, and Moran expects the number to reach 3,000 during 1998.

Rick Godfrey, the director of court automation, observed that while Wisconsin counties are not required to participate in CCAP, all but three or four have joined the program. Walworth and Outagamie counties are two that opted out. They had already developed and implemented their own computer systems, which satisfied their needs.

Meanwhile, Moran and Godfrey anticipate that the courts will finish installing the basic components of CCAP during 1998. Of the seven or eight remaining counties, Milwaukee County poses the biggest challenge. "The Milwaukee County courthouse processes an enormous volume of cases, and its existing computer system is different from the one employed by CCAP. This forces CCAP programmers to spend a lot of time working through conversion problems," Godfrey explained. As a result, Milwaukee County will be one of the last to fully implement CCAP.

Nevertheless, Moran and Godfrey believe that Wisconsin is far ahead of its peers. In some states, courthouses have installed such features as automated clerks or kiosks. Others states have struggled to link the computer systems that their county courts created independently. Wisconsin, on the other hand, will soon have implemented the most basic automation features - jury, case and financial management - using compatible hardware and software, in virtually all of its county courthouses.

Lawyers and other court users may not immediately sense CCAP's presence. The project's initial goals are to reduce the recordkeeping burdens that plague court clerks, judges and registers of probate and to enable the courts across the state to process cases consistent with one another. Once this is accomplished, CCAP coordinators hope to employ computers in ways that will assist lawyers and other courthouse users, by providing such options as the means to file pleadings electronically.

Without significantly more funding, Wisconsin's courthouse of the future may be a dream. "Right now CCAP employs 39 people, but we need at least 10 more to service the higher-than-expected number of users," Moran said. Currently, the state spends $6 million per year on the project, and most of that funding is needed to maintain CCAP's computer infrastructure.

Godfrey agreed that budget restrictions will prevent CCAP coordinators from installing cutting-edge computer enhancements at Wisconsin courthouses anytime soon. However, he added, since the dispute over the 1993-95 Biennium, the judicial branch and the Department of Administration have been working hard to accommodate each other's needs. In fact, the 1997-99 Biennium added a funding mechanism that will generate an additional $800,000 per year for CCAP.