Orion Press Release

Miami-Dade County Chooses AgencyWeb® CourtNotify for Subpoenas

Jan 1, 2007 4:52:00 PM

Dallas, TX (January, 2007) – Miami-Dade County, the largest County in the State of Florida, has signed a major contract with Orion Communications, Inc. for its AgencyWeb® CourtNotify Subpoena Management System. Orion’s integrated CourtNotify solution will enable the County to increase police agency court attendance, and improve efficiencies and accountability across multiple departments, agencies and jurisdictions.

 

The current process of distributing subpoena notifications in Miami-Dade has remained substantially unchanged since the County was chartered in 1957. As the County has grown in size and complexity, the manual process has become extremely fragmented and labor intensive. In an average month, a staggering 40,000 subpoenas are printed at the County’s Data Center, reflecting entries in the Miami-Dade County Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS), Traffic Information System (TIS) and Parking System, as well as entries made by State Attorney’s and/or Public Defenders Offices. From the Miami-Dade Data Center, subpoenas are delivered first to the Richard E. Gerstein (REG) Courthouse, and then to the Court Services Bureau for manual sorting. They go back out on the road as 17 couriers fan out over a 2,000 square mile area to locations throughout the County. On a daily basis, the process represents hours upon hours of administrative processing and navigation through traffic congestion so that police officers can receive their notifications to serve.

 

The Dade County Association of Chiefs of Police had been discussing alternatives to reengineer the subpoena distribution business process. A collaborative team effort involving multiple County departments and a municipal partnership with the Aventura Police Department initiated the effort. The goal was to establish an electronic subpoena system for the County with multi-jurisdictional capability. Via marketing research conducted by several County departments and ultimately by Miami-Dade County’s Dept. of Procurement Management, it was determined that Orion Communications’ CourtNotify product best complied with the requirements identified by Miami-Dade Law Enforcement agencies, was configurable for multiple County agencies, and allowed for integration with existing systems.

 

With CourtNotify, over 50 agencies throughout Miami-Dade will have the ability to electronically distribute and track inter-agency subpoenas and notices for County court cases. Agencies will use online tools such as email and web screens to automate notifications and receive documented response acknowledgements. Automated escalated alerts will ensure that required witnesses attend scheduled cases and that court clerks are informed about emergency situations.

Day-of-court attendance will be tracked and made available for reporting. Interfaces to and from mainframe justice applications, as well as to electronic document management systems, will be made for case, officer, and subpoena data. State prosecutors or clerks will be able reset and confirm new dates in real-time when a case or docket is rescheduled.