DA’s office to cut down on paper use

Officials at the Merced County District Attorney’s Office this week announced the office will be cutting down on its use of paper.

According to a press release from the District Attorney’s Office, as of Monday all prosecutors began bringing their laptops or iPads to court to conduct business.

District Attorney Larry D. Morse II said Merced County is the second county in the state to go “paperless” after Yolo County. Still, Morse said the term paperless is something of a misnomer. “A more accurate term would be ‘fileless,’ as there will always be a need for some paper in the court system,” Morse said in the release.

Under the new system, prosecutors and clerical staff will not spend their workdays creating, carrying and storing thousands of paper files as they have for decades. All of their cases and the information needed to conduct their weekly criminal calendars will be accessible from their laptop or iPad while in the courthouse, according to the release.

Morse’s office in 2010 purchased a new case management system produced by Karpel, a St. Louis, Mo.-based company. Morse said the company made his office “a discount deal that was too good to pass up. We became their ‘loss leader’ in California and it has proven to be an incredible bargain.”

Morse described the previous case management system as “antiquated and inefficient” in every way. He believes the new system has enabled attorneys, clerical staff, investigators and victim/witness staff to receive and store police reports, written evidence and court documents electronically – and access and share that information faster.

Morse said the ultimate goal for the new system was always to get the office to operate without paper files as soon as possible. He acknowledged there were some challenges along the way. “Some of the older attorneys, me most of all, had a more difficult time making a transition from the comfort of paper to computers. Our younger attorneys, who have been raised in a computer age, have stepped into the new system without a hitch,” he said.

The move toward becoming “fileless” was led by Chief Deputy District Attorney Harold Nutt and Staff Services Analyst Trish Goodman, according to the release.

The purchase of the new case management system and going fileless happened without using county general fund money, according to Morse. He said the more than $250,000 used to purchase the new case management system came from consumer protection case settlements and asset forfeiture. He said he expects his office will save thousands each year in storage fees for paper files.

This story was originally published January 7, 2015 at 6:48 PM with the headline "DA’s office to cut down on paper use."