Doxpop - Tools for Attorneys and Public Information Researchers: August 2017

Monday, August 28, 2017

Lawrence County Courts move to Odyssey. Access to court records via Doxpop unaffected.

Over the weekend of August 26th/27th, the Lawrence County Courts converted to the Odyssey case tracking system, thus moving their data storage and administration to Indianapolis. 

This move does not significantly affect Doxpop users because Doxpop buys access from the State Court Administration to a real-time feed of court data from the Odyssey system. Our customers' access to court information will not be interrupted during this transition.

A few of the services we provide will look odd during the transition because there will be a short period when both the old data and the new data are available. In particular:
  • If you use the personal calendar feature to keep track of hearings connected to your Bar ID, you will see two colors for each 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 our "County Details Page" for Lawrence County Courts you will find two entries for each court until the merge is complete.
  • 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.
  • If you use any of our "watch" services to keep an eye on cases or people of interest, we will be moving those watches over so they point to the cases and people that are a part of the Odyssey data feed. We run a process to convert these twice each day, but it is possible for notification of events to slip through the cracks between conversion runs so you may want to periodically do a manual check between now and the first week of August, after that, we'll be back to normal.
Finally, one deficiency in the Odyssey system is that financial information is not exported in their data feed, so that detail will not be available after the transition. We regularly ask that the Court Administration add this to the data feed, but so far, we are told that it is not allowed because the clerks using the Odyssey system have requested that they not make that information available to us. If this information is important to you, please encourage the clerks you work with to tell the State Court Administration of your needs so we can get the information back online.
As always, we are available to answer any questions in person, so don't hesitate to call support at 866-369-7671 if you have any questions.

Lawrence County, IN Recorder's Office now online!

Doxpop is delighted to announce the addition of the Lawrence County Recorder to our online public access services!




A big welcome to the newest member of our team, #41 Lawrence County!



The Lawrence County Recorder's Office has chosen our online services to supplement their public access offerings. In addition to the access provided in their office, records will now be available online 24/7 through Doxpop.

Document images and an index searchable by name, date, legal description, and many other details are available back to December 1994. The Recorder's staff is working to provide indices beyond that date to link up the additional older scanned document images. The copy fees collected through Doxpop are remitted back to the Recorder's Office to provide the funds to preserve and perpetuate their records, as well as to fund additional digitization efforts.

Anyone wishing to look up recorded documents on-line may visit www.doxpop.com to use the service. A low-volume search plan is available for free, with higher-volume subscriptions available to commercial users for a fee.

Friday, August 18, 2017

Recorded Document pages over 11" x 17" no longer charged differently

July 1st, 2017 saw many changes in fees for Indiana Recorder's Offices, including an increase in fees for large-format Recorded Document pages, such as Plats. This fee was increased from $2 to $5 per page. Doxpop had previously been collecting $2 per page for our Recorders, and so our fees also increased to reflect this.

The increase prompted a number of calls, and upon asking several of our partner Recorders it seemed that there wasn't a unified approach to the new fee. Both Doxpop and our partners wished for a better, more unified interpretation of that rule, so we contacted the Indiana Recorder's Association to seek guidance.

The Recorder's Association has recommended that recorders collect $1 per page for all copies delivered online. Doxpop has updated our system to reflect this recommendation, and there is no longer an upcharge for large-format Recorded Document pages.

Please keep an eye out for fee updates in the future as Recorders work through how to respond to the changes in law, but for now, we have set the base fee for all documents obtained through Doxpop to $1 per page regardless of size.

Remember that in addition to the Recorder's fee, Doxpop may charge a fee as well. If you are on the 6-search plan (with no subscription fee), the total charge for documents is $2 per page. If you are are on the 20-search or 60-search plans, the total charge is $1.35. On the 200-search and above plans, there is no additional fee, so you just pay the $1 that we pass along to the Recorder.

This change takes effect immediately. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions!


Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Confirmation section added to e-filing.

In response to a requirement from the State, we have added a set of checkboxes to the e-filing system that users will be required to check off to indicate that they are aware of (and following) the rules before submitting an e-filing.

We understand that this will slightly slow the filing process, and are thinking about ways we might streamline this area. However, for now we simply have to conform to requirements.

The new checkboxes are added to the fees area, and look like this:


Let us know if you run into any problems with this area or have suggestions to make it easier!

Change to rules on serving summons in person or to agent.

This rule change is not directly connected to e-filing, but because the business processes around initial service per rule 4 are generally in flux due to e-filing, this may be a good time to incorporate the change in your procedures.

Here's a link to the court's order: http://in.gov/judiciary/files/order-rules-2017-0731-trial.pdf

In brief, the change is that when you serve a person by leaving a copy at the person's residence, or serve through an agent of the person, you must also follow up by mailing a copy of the summons and complaint to the last known address. (Emphasis added based on Richard Mann's clarifying comment below. Thanks!)

This rule change takes effect at the beginning of 2018, but it's the sort of rule that is easy to comply with now so it's already part of your routine when it becomes required.

h/t to Richard Mann for pointing this out.