The CCS is back, with our apologies.

A couple of weeks ago, we thought we were improving and simplifying our system by replacing the old CCS link with the printable version of the case details. Boy were we wrong! Apparently the less detailed and simpler view is valuable to many folks, so the CCS is back.

Thanks to everyone who quickly gave us feedback about this. We do our best to make the Doxpop system better with each release, but when an "improvement" really isn't, we're willing to respond quickly.

The CCS link is available on both the search results list and in the upper right corner of case detail pages.

Please keep the feedback coming, and know that we appreciate you.

Change is in the air! A new feature arrives, an old friend moves...

This weekend we released a couple of changes this weekend that moved an old feature, and added a new one.

First, your old friend, the printable CCS, has moved:

In the past, when you wanted the details of a case, you could either click on the case number, or on a link labelled "CCS" just to the right of the case number in the search results screen. The CCS view was a simpler layout, intended for printing the details rather than viewing them. We have eliminated this link, and now you should click on the case number any time you want case details. If you need a print version, click on the "Printable View" link in the upper right corner, and you'll get a simpler layout designed for printing.

Second, we're trying out a new type of search: 

On the "advanced search" screen, you'll find a link that invites you to try our new "Judgment Search". The Judgment Search is intended to help you find cases where a decision has been made against the defendant. This could be for something as simple as a speeding ticket or as complex as civil litigation resulting in a lien. 

The Judgment Search is a work in progress, so we're putting it out there without any guarantees and inviting you to use it in addition to your regular searching. Then give us your feedback so we can fine tune it. During this test period, you may do as many Judgment Searches as you want for free.

To appear on this screen, a case must match the name you enter for the defendant and also meet one of three criteria:

1. The case may have been designated as one having a judgment or a satisfaction of judgment by the clerk. This is done either by entering an explicit judgment date, or by setting a flag indicating that a "Hard Copy" or "Document" containing Judgment has been filed in the permanent record. Many clerks always mark cases in this manner whenever they place a case in their Judgment Docket Book. For the clerks who use this approach, it provides a very complete record of judgments for their particular county.
2. The case may have an "accounting entry", meaning that the clerk has been ordered by the court to collect some fee from the defendant for this case. In counties that do not make a judgment docket entry, this is a good method of being sure that a judgment has been entered against the defendant for this case, but may not provide a complete list of all cases where a judgment exists.
3. The case may have a minute entry containing the key word "judgment" (or the alternate spelling "judgement".) This is also a good indication for the particular case identified, but, like the accounting entries, may not identify all cases for the county in question.

We're currently in the process of surveying all of the clerks we work with to learn which counties use the most complete method of flagging all cases where a judgment occurs, and for these counties, when that method was first used. When we have this information, we'll post it in a table. In the meantime, take a look and let us know what you think. It doesn't cost a thing to try it out, and your thoughts will help us make it better.

Welcome Jay County Recorder!

The Jay County Recorder is pleased to announce two new services for providing access to Jay County recorded documents through the web.

The index to documents and images of documents filed in 1997 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 document 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 Bev Myers at the Recorder's Office, (260) 726-6940 or Nick Fankhauser at Doxpop, LLC; (765) 373-9245; nickf@doxpop.com.

Kosciusko County Now Offering Unlimited Image Viewing for Recorded Documents

Doxpop customers needing to view a large number of recorded documents will be pleased to learn that unlimited viewing is now available in Kosciusko County. Kosciusko County is the third Indiana county to participate in this service. Wayne County and Dearborn County are also currently participating in the unlimited viewing feature.

For a reasonable monthly fee, Doxpop customers can add this service to their existing subscription to view an unlimited number of full-size document images filed in the Kosciusko County Recorder's office.  Documents such as mortgages, deeds, and liens are available for your viewing pleasure.

To view a demonstration of how to add this service to your subscription, make sure to watch our demonstration video on our YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/doxpop, or just watch the video below.

Odyssey Court Records Now Current Through May 1

Over the weekend, Doxpop completed its latest information update for Indiana Counties using Odyssey's case management system. Court record information for Odyssey counties now contain all information filed up to May 1, 2012.

We continue to work with the state in providing our customers with real-time updates to Odyssey information. Keep an eye on our blog as more information regarding the status of this project becomes available.

April information posted from the State's Odyssey system, Good news and Bad...

The monthly update for counties using the Odyssey Case Management System run by the State's Judicial Technology and Automation Committee has been posted.

However, please note that the information is incomplete for the last few days of April. The posted information is complete through midnight (end of day) on April 24th. (You may see some entries after April 24th, but please don't depend on these being complete.)


The reason is that the folks at the State extract the information in two separate batches which we merge to update our system, and they did these two extracts several days apart this month. Since the first one occurred on the 24th, we can't guarantee complete information after that date. They are sending us a second file in a few days to patch this up and make the information complete through May 1st. They have also agreed to alter their process slightly to prevent this problem in the future.

On the good news side, we are currently receiving "real time" updates from the State's Odyssey system, and are working to fully test and integrate this data feed into our system so you won't have to worry about how current the information is in the future. The initial assessment from our programmers on this feed is that the folks at the State have done their job well, and it's just a matter of time (and hard work) before we'll be able to pass the information along directly to our users.

Doxpop at the 2012 Mira Awards

Doxpop is honored to be selected by TechPoint as a 2012 Mira Award finalist. The Mira Awards recognize the top contributors among those involved in Indiana's technology industry, and can be considered Indiana's technology "Oscars". Doxpop is nominated in the category of "IT Services Excellence & Innovation". This is a brand new category being introduced to this year's Mira Award's ceremony, and Doxpop is very excited to be included among the finalists in this first-time category.

Winners will be announced on May 12 at a black-tie gala event at the JW Marriott in Indianapolis. Celebrity chef Quang T. Dinh will be presenting his culinary skills for the special occasion. To learn more about the Mira Awards and this year's nominees, please visit http://www.techpoint.org/finalists-2012.

Welcome Jefferson County Courts!

Karen Mannix, Jefferson 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 78 Indiana counties, and fine payment services for 23 Indiana counties.

Currently, citations and civil cases are available via the Doxpop Public Access system. Criminal cases will become available in late spring. After the criminal cases have been added, a public demonstration and training session will be held.

Both of these services are provided by the clerk's office in cooperation with Doxpop without any use of public funding or tax money.

March of Progress? Monthly Odyssey updates and progress toward real-time data.

Doxpop just completed the March update of information from Indiana Counties using the Odyssey system. We usually process updates in about three days, but this particular update took a bit longer because the format of the data changed this month. That's bad because it slowed us down a little, but good because the changes are corrections that JTAC has included this month to take care of problems we previously reported. Most notably, disposition status information.

The ability to provide real-time updates to Odyssey records for Doxpop users is still at least one month off, but remains our top priority.

That's the short version. For details, read on:

You'll all recall that in September 2011, the Supreme Court of Indiana publicly committed to making a real-time messaging interface to the Odyssey system available on January 1, 2012 via the services of JTAC (the Judicial Technology and Automation Committee.) In response to this public commitment, Doxpop made a corresponding commitment to our customers to connect to this interface pass the data on to them through our system. Since September, Doxpop has provided funding in the form of well over $100,000 in payments to JTAC. We have also invested countless hours from our programming staff to building our side of this interface and providing prompt, helpful feedback to JTAC programmers as they do their work.

We're confident that Doxpop will recover our significant investment, which depends primarily on the good faith of JTAC in following through on their commitment. However, the path has been a bit rough so far.

We have, since November 2011, been able to obtain monthly updates from JTAC. However, in a recent eMail, the analysts working on the real-time messaging interface from the Odyssey system told us that the program they were working on (which was apparently similar to the Doxpop API) could not sustain the performance levels required to maintain a real-time data feed.

Doxpop is confident that JTAC can achieve the necessary performance level because Doxpop maintains a similar system in the form of our API, which contains roughly twice the number of cases found in JTAC's system and exceeds the performance requirements for a real-time interface.

During peak usage periods, the Doxpop API has served 1.4 million record requests from our customers in 13 hours (about 1800/minute.) By our calculations, to maintain their promised real-time feed, JTAC's system will have to service 900 requests per minute. Thanks to the efforts of our skilled programming staff, Doxpop's service runs on a meager $5,000 worth of hardware. With their resources, we are confident that JTAC will be able to easily match our performance.

So... What's next, and how long will it take?

We've been told that JTAC is now taking a new approach that they hope will provide the required performance levels very soon. Our programmers are currently working with their staff, and report some  progress. We are very disappointed that 2 months after this service was promised, we still haven't seen anything like a production quality interface... but we are hopeful and we're providing the best feedback we can every day to the programmers working on the JTAC side of the project.

I suppose this blog post is our gentle public feedback to the management of JTAC: Please follow through on this project as quickly as you can! Our small business is depending on you to keep your commitments. if we can provide a similar system with fewer resources, your staff and resources are certainly up to the task.

Miami County, Indiana Joins Doxpop Fine Payment

Doxpop is pleased to announce the newest county to join the Fine Payment network, Miami County, Indiana. Licensed drivers and others with traffic citations filed in Miami County and other Indiana Counties now have the convenience of paying these fines on-line with their credit or debit card. This service eliminates the need of making a special trip to the county courthouse to pay your fines.

The Miami County Courthouse in Peru, Indiana handle citations filed in Peru and other Miami County towns such as Amboy, Bunker Hill, Converse, Denver, Macy, and Mexico.  Major highways in Miami County include US Routes 24 and 31, as well as State Roads 16, 18, 19, 124, and 218.

Doxpop Fine Payment can be accessed online at http://payment.doxpop.com. Make sure to check out our website to see what we can offer you today.