Justice Frank Sullivan, Jr., Chair of JTAC, traveled to Rensselaer last Friday to thank Judges James Ahler and John Potter, Circuit Court Clerk Vickie Bozell and former Clerk Kara Fishburn for leading the way in the deployment of the Odyssey case management system in their courts.
Hon. John D. Potter, Hon. Frank Sullivan, Jr., Hon. James R. Ahler
With Odyssey, an estimated 7,700 new cases filed in Jasper County each year will be managed by a state-of-the-art computer system. Jasper Superior Court Judge James Ahler called Odyssey a valuable public service tool. “Odyssey is a significant technological advancement from our older, obsolete case management system. It will greatly enhance public access to appropriate court information, as well as make our work more transparent. It will increase public safety because it enables the courts to share timely, accurate and comprehensive information with law enforcement. We will also save Jasper County money because the state pays for the software, training, licensing and installation—all of which our county incurred as a cost under our prior case management system.” Jasper Circuit Court Judge John Potter also highlighted the fiscal advantages of Odyssey. “This benefits all citizens of Jasper County, not just those who use the court system, because by developing the program at the state level as the Supreme Court has done, it spreads the costs over the whole state. To purchase a comparable program for Jasper County would cost tens of thousands of dollars for service and licensing. Odyssey did not cost Jasper County taxpayers any county funds.”
Jasper County Clerk Vickie Bozell said she is fortunate to work with the system. “The State has done a wonderful job helping us go live with Odyssey. Their training and support staff are great. Odyssey has helped the Clerk’s office become more streamlined and efficient to serve the people of Jasper County.” Former Clerk Kara Fishburn is equally pleased and explained, “Our old legacy system was not as user friendly as Odyssey. We were in dire need of technological improvements. Odyssey provides so much more than our legacy system did and we’re saving taxpayer money.”
Later in the afternoon Justice Sullivan met with Knox City Court Judge Charles Hasnerl, his staff, State Representative Nancy Dembowski and other local dignitaries. Knox City Court began using Odyssey on November 15th and was the 75th court to go live with the software. On an accelerated deployment schedule, the new case management system went live after court staff completed four days of training.
Prosecuting Attorney Nicholas Bourff, Hon. Frank Sullivan, Jr., Hon. Charles F. Hasnerl
Knox City Court handles nearly all the criminal misdemeanor, infraction and ordinance cases for Starke County, processing approximately 4,400 cases every year. On the first day using Odyssey, Judge Hasnerl decided that he would update the court dockets, result hearings and schedule trials on the bench as each case was called.
Free public access to case information in Odyssey can be found at: http://mycase.in.gov
