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Justice Department grant will help municipal courts develop case management software

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A Justice Department grant will help Missouri’s municipal courts develop case management software, Missouri Chief Justice Patricia Breckenridge announced.

The “Price of Justice Grant” was awarded to the state courts administrator’s office by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The judiciary will be able to use the grant to pilot a program to provide opportunities for out-of-court resolution of minor traffic and ordinance violations.

The grant is scheduled to run from Oct. 2016 through Sept. 30, 2019. Breckenridge announced the grant at the annual joint conference of The Missouri Bar and the Judicial Conference of Missouri at the Lake of the Ozarks.

“We know a major obstacle to improving municipal operations is the lack of case management software,” Breckenridge said during her address to the conference. “So the development of new software is the highest priority of the Missouri Court Automation Committee. … I am excited to announce that we were awarded a $500,000 grant from the Department of Justice to aid this project.”

A work group of representatives from the Supreme Court of Missouri, Missouri Association of Probate and Associate Circuit Judges, Legal Aid of Western Missouri, Missouri Office of Prosecution Services, Missouri Sheriff’s Association, Missouri Municipal and Associate Circuit Judges Association and municipal divisions throughout the state will oversee the project. They will start by standardizing case types that can be disposed without a mandatory court appearance, which would allow these violations to be managed electronically.

That electronic access would include mobile devices. It could also allow text-message notification of hearing and payment dates.

“The new software will give the public access to cases from their mobile devices and allow municipal divisions to text notices of hearing and payment dates, automate the determination of indigency, and refer defendants to payment or community service plans without their appearance in court,” Breckenridge said. “We thank the Missouri Court Automation Committee for taking ownership of the challenge and turning it into an opportunity for the future.”

The courts also received a 12-month grant from the State Judicial Institute. The $50,000 grant, which took effect last month, allows the judiciary to hire staff to enter case data into the statewide case management system for north St. Louis County municipalities consolidating their municipal court operations into the Normandy municipal division.

Those municipalities include Bellerive Acres, Cool Valley, Glen Echo Park, Greendale, Pasadena Park and Uplands Park.