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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

To Really Screw Up the Courts, You Need|a Computerized Case Management System

LAS VEGAS (CN) - The Clark County District Attorney's Office says it spent $775,000 for a computerized case management system that the contractor delivered 4 years late, and which never worked "in any capacity."

The federal lawsuit from Clark County, home of Las Vegas, is a pale echo of neighboring California's struggle, where judicial bureaucrats pushed a $1.9 billion case management system onto state courts, in a mounting cost spiral that some fear "may cripple the judicial branch."

Opponents of California new case management system complained of increased data entry time and longer customer wait times; as a result, Los Angeles has limited the new software system to one small claims courtroom.

The Clark County lawsuit does not specify the name of defendant Computer Square's case management system, and the court's spokesman was not able to elucidate it by press time.

Phase one of the project was supposed to be completed by August 2005, and phase two was to commence July 2006, according to the complaint.

Both deadlines were pushed back to February 2007, then again to July 21, 2008.

By then, the complaint states, the system had "failed to perform in any capacity."

The District Attorney's Office says Computer Square "failed to retain employees with the technical expertise necessary to facilitate performance of the scope of work required by the contract," and "failed to deliver an operation case management system as warranted, conforming to the contract specifications when installed, because the product contains defects that substantially affect project system performance."

So another new "launch date" was set - Jan. 25, 2010 - but "the project continued to fail to function in any capacity, repeatedly locking down upon attempts to access, modify or input data/information," the district attorney says.

Finally, on Oct. 18, 2010, more than 5 years after the initial launch date for Phase One, the District Attorney's Office pulled the plug. It gave Computer Square 30 days to "provide a cure in the form of a functional product."

But Computer Square failed again.

Clark County seeks more than $775,000, and costs, for breach of contract, breach of faith and breach of warranty.

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