The Judge - Court Reporting System
JUDGE Main Menu
The JUDGE is a fully integrated, online Court Management Information System. The JUDGE tracks each case from its inception through final disposition. The JUDGE provides a comprehensive system for processing criminal, traffic and parking cases, with their associated bond and document activity, fines and court costs, defendant payments and witness information.
All active JUDGE data entry, updating and inquiry is done through the Process Complaint menu selection. A record is accessed through its main screen, Defendant Maintenance, which then provides additional access to Complaint Maintenance, Court Disposition, Case Notes, Bonds, Witnesses, Documents, Contract Maintenance and Payments.
Case activity is tracked in Case Notes, with entries automatically generated when dispositions or pending codes change (when these codes are linked). In addition, free-form comments can be entered in Case History Notes or a Case History Note code can be entered. When a record is initially transferred to the JUDGE and goes through Process Complaint, the system automatically assigns a pending code that indicates the case has been filed and a matching note is generated in Case History Notes. As the case progresses, changes can be made to indicate such things as court dates scheduled, dispositions, payments made, etc. With established links, most of these changes automatically generate a Case Note, and users can make additional entries with codes entered in the History Table. For more information about the link between disposition codes, pending codes and case notes, see Installation.
Fines and court costs are established according to the ordinance or statute the defendant is charged with. When the ordinance or statute is entered, and if a Violation Cost Table is created, the system automatically generates the appropriate fine and court costs. Partial or complete payments can be made (as allowed by the Court), with the ability to void incorrect payments. However, all payment activity is recorded, including voids, so that clerk audit records are complete.
Records that will be processed by the JUDGE are entered initially in CAPS, JAMS or CITATIONS, or by manually creating the JUDGE record. Court records can be automatically created from CAPS Booking and JAMS. This is accomplished by choosing the Court selection on the Booking Monitor; the Court Case number can be the Report number, if entered in the Book-In record, or the Prisoner ID number.
The system classifies fines into three categories: moving, parking or criminal.
Records that originate from Citations are classified with Parking Violations Fines or Moving Violations Fines.
A Court case that originates from any other source will be classified with Criminal Fines. Fields in CITATIONS records are updated by actions in the JUDGE; these include Appearance Date and Time as well as Disposition Date, Disposition, Citation Status for Parking Violations and Case (Court) Number.
The Associated Cases Indictor field in the Property Management module in CAPS Property Room (Evidence), accepts a JUDGE case number as a linked case. When the Judge Case number is entered, the Court Disposition and Disposition Date are written back to this area in CAPS.