District Clerk Loren Jackson announced the launch of the Harris County District Clerk’s (HCDC) office new Web site, http://www.hcdistrictclerk.com, with added features, streamlined design and navigation, giving the public even greater access to court records and documents at a reduced cost.
Among the new features on the HCDC Web site, the Criminal Case Search feature allows the public to search Criminal Cases, view the documents free of charge and purchase “uncertified” copies of those documents for only 10 cents a page. Additionally, the Web site now offers Harris County Criminal Background Checks, making it easy and convenient for government agencies, employers and rental associations to quickly check on applicants and purchase copies of “certified” background check documents online for a flat fee of only $1. The same documents purchased in person at the Harris County Courthouse would cost $6 a page.
“The Web site was redesigned to be more end-user friendly and to help the public get the information they need even faster and easier from anywhere they have online access—without making a trip to the courthouse,” Jackson said. “If we can get more people to use our Web site to access our services, we can reduce the cost of providing those services in-house, and in turn, save our taxpayers time and money.”
The new Web site brings features certain to benefit the county courts and legal community. The Civil and Criminal Docket Search function will improve efficiency by helping lawyers better manage and schedule their case assignments through online access, a feature with potential to help them avoid missing hearings by easily keeping their schedules up-to-date. This feature builds on the Automated Docketing feature, which the HCDC office began testing in January of this year.
Added functionally brings Automated Docketing for civil, family and criminal trials and allows for e-mails to be sent to attorneys each weekend with a listing of all their court hearings for the following week. By simply clicking on links contained in the e-mail, attorneys can now access docket information along with the associated documents filed in civil lawsuits without a trip to the courthouse.
“The new Web site is really only the beginning of a long commitment I have to using technology to keep improving how we work, how we serve the public and to save taxpayer’s money,” Jackson said. “To that end, we are continuing to work with the legal community to learn more about how we can help them better utilize our electronic services for improved efficiency and cost savings to their offices and ours, as well as for the clients they represent. We are also partnering with other offices within the county court system to figure out more ways to utilize technology to better serve the public from a countywide-system perspective.”
