Doxpop - Tools for Attorneys and Public Information Researchers: December 2012

Monday, December 17, 2012

Welcome Putnam County Recorder!


The Putnam County Recorder is pleased to announce two new services for providing access to Putnam County's Recorded documents through the web. 

The index to documents filed in January 1992 or later and images of documents filed in January 1993 or later are now available on-line at http://www.doxpop.com. Basic information about the documents is available at no cost. Detailed information and documents images are available as a fee-based service. 

In addition, The Recorder's Office now offers a free property watch service to our community. Any person may sign up at http://watch.doxpop.com to set a watch on his or her property and name. Participants are notified via email any time a document is filed that references the watched property or name.  

Both of these services have been provided without any use of public funding (no use of tax money.) The access provided by these services is in addition to the public access already provided at the courthouse. 

For additional information, contact Opal Sutherlin at  the Recorder's Office, (765) 653-5613 or Nick Fankhauser at Doxpop, LLC; (765) 373-9245; nickf@doxpop.com.

 

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Announcing the Whitewater Valley Pro Bono Commission Matching Grant

Doxpop, LLC supports the work of The Whitewater Valley Pro Bono Commission in Wayne County and is encouraging others to join them in supporting this worthy cause. The Pro Bono office provides low cost access to legal advice in non-criminal matters for those in our community who may not be able to afford to pay the full costs of hiring an attorney. The Pro Bono office is raising funds between now and December 31, 2012, and Doxpop is matching them, dollar for dollar, up to $1,000 per donor, maximum of $5,000. The local Pro Bono office lost funding due to reorganization at state level (nearest is now in Lawrenceburg), and this is an important need in our community. Contact the Whitewater Valley Pro Bono Commission to donate.

http://www.whitewatervalleyprobono.org/pleasedonate.html

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Welcome Newton County Courts!

Katie Grant, Newton County Clerk, is pleased to announce two new services for the public:
 
People wishing to pay their fines for traffic citations or other infractions may go to http://payment.doxpop.com, find the infraction, and pay in a matter of minutes. The total payment, including the online transaction fee, is calculated and displayed prior to the completion of the transaction. The fines are sent to the clerk and the payer notified via email when the payment is accepted, usually within 10 minutes.
 
People wishing to access public court cases on-line may access the information at http://www.doxpop.com. This web site is designed primarily to serve attorneys and other professionals who use court information with fee-based services, but it also provides low-volume access to the general public at no cost. Doxpop currently provides on-line access to court information in 83 Indiana counties, and fine payment services for 25 Indiana counties.
 
Both of these services are provided by the clerk's office in cooperation with Doxpop without any use of public funding or tax money.

Grant County moves to Odyssey, but don't worry! -The information and features you're used to are still available on Doxpop

Grant County has recently made the switch to JTAC's Odyssey System for management of court cases. Over the next couple days, you may notice some oddities on Doxpop while this transition takes place. The most important thing to remember is that all Grant County court information is still available and current on Doxpop, along with current court information from 82 other Indiana Counties.

How does this  change affect Doxpop customers in Grant County?

In the long run, there will be no significant change. However during the next week, you may notice a few rough edges as we merge data:

  • When you use Doxpop's personal calendar feature, you will see two colors for Grant County on your calendar. Every event will be available, but the older cases will have a different color from the newer cases. When we complete the merge process, these will go back to being a single color.
  • When you look at Grant County's Details Page, you will find two entries for each court until the merge is complete.
  • If you use any of our email alert services, you may receive extra notifications during the transition period.
  • When you are doing searches, you will find two entries for some cases. This is because while we are loading the information from Odyssey, we will also be maintaining the old data until the operation is complete to ensure you don't miss anything. When you see two case entries, please look at both to ensure you have the most current information.
  • The only lasting change in available information is the financial information. The Indiana Division of State Court Administration has informed us that the clerks using the Odyssey system prefer that financial information not be made public. The Clerks in the other 48 counties we serve have decided that this is useful information that the public should have access to, so we're puzzled that only Clerks using Odyssey have decided not to share this information. If you think financial transactions are an important part of the public record, please ask the clerks you work with to contact the Division about making it available through Doxpop.


How does Doxpop provide access to Odyssey Data?

During our last transition for an Odyssey county, one user commented that they thought Doxpop might be "stealing" Odyssey data from the State. Nothing could be further from the truth. Doxpop pays the Division of State Court Administration more than $13,000 per month for access to this "public" information. Doxpop then aggregates the information into our database to provide you with integrated access to 83 Indiana counties in a single, powerful research site. This is a lot of work for us, and because we receive no public funding, an expensive effort, but we think the results are worth it.


The Grant County transition will not take long and everything will be back to normal within a week.

If you have any questions regarding this transition, please call our toll free number at 866-369-7671.