CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) - Nueces County leaders are examining computer and staff issues after no records from civil trials were submitted to a required state office since 2010.
No county civil trials were reported to the Texas Office of Court Administration during that time frame, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times (https://bit.ly/1FCLBzE ) reported Thursday. The issue did not affect state reimbursement for jury trials because those figures are sent to the Texas comptroller’s office, said County Auditor Dale Atchley.
Nueces County has eight state district courts and five county courts at law.
Rep. Todd Hunter on Wednesday raised the records issue with Tyner Little, the county’s public information officer, asking why reports from Nueces County showed no civil trials. Hunter was researching how the county would be affected by a bill that would increase the number of jurors needed in a civil trial when he learned of the inaccurate reporting, Little said.
Little brought it to the attention of District Clerk Anne Lorentzen, who took over in January and replaced Patsy Perez who led the office for 12 years.
Lorentzen determined that many of the office’s 57 employees never attended required training for a case management system called Odyssey, implemented in 2010. Trial information is entered into the system and collected from there to be sent to the state’s office.
Perez said one of her employees submitted the reports but sometimes Odyssey did not work.
Lorentzen said she wants to supply electronic filing training to her employees. She plans to discuss reorganizing the office with commissioners during a budget workshop this summer.
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Information from: Corpus Christi Caller-Times, https://www.caller.com
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