These 11 counties will be on eCourts by October (2024)

NCAOC said 11 new counties will go online with eCourts on Oct. 14, 2024, including the following counties: Anson, Cabarrus, Cumberland, Hoke, Montgomery, Moore, Randolph, Richmond, Scotland, Stanly, and Union. That will bring the total expansion of eCourts in North Carolina to 49 of the state's 100 counties.

“Serving half of North Carolina with online access to court records by October 14, 2024, is an important milestone for the Judicial Branch as the eCourts project continues to transform access to justice for the people of our great state,” NCAOC Director Ryan S. Boyce said in a statement.

The NCAOC emphasized the benefits of launching eCourts, including public access to justice system records and integrating public safety systems.

The eCourts system is already serving half of North Carolina's population as of now, including the state's three largest regions, but that didn't come without issues.

Attorneys in the impacted communities told Boudin the new system imposes added dangers: such as law enforcement officers no longer having access to information they need before making an arrest, or citizens not being able to get timely domestic violence restraining orders or child custody orders.

Parrish Daughtry doesn’t mince words when talking about the new way of doing things in some of North Carolina’s courthouses.

“This will do nothing but delay justice,” the veteran attorney said.

“There are pitfalls everywhere," Trey Fitzhugh, another attorney, said. "I don’t mean to sound alarmist but this is bad."

Mike Reece, also a criminal defense attorney said, “It’s been a train wreck from the get-go."

Daughtry agreed.

“The system frequently goes down, frequently stalls," Daughtry said. "We started calling it the wheel of death because you just watch the wheel spin.”

Another longtime attorney, Jack O’Hale, couldn't believe the financial cost.

“We spent $100 million to engineer a paperless system that uses more paper and is totally inefficient and doesn’t work and we have pissed away $100 million," he said.

WCNC Charlotte is always asking "where's the money?" If you need help, reach out to WCNC Charlotte by emailing money@wcnc.com.

Fitzhugh tried to stress their new reality.

“This is going to sound overly dramatic but this is not a bump in the road," Fitzhugh said. "This is not a resistance to change – not an adjustment period. It’s a disaster.”

Below is an outline of WCNC Charlotte's coverage of the eCourts rollout in North Carolina:

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