September 21, 2009 | The Tribune
When Harris County District Clerk Loren Jackson spoke at the September Humble Area Chamber luncheon, his first question took the guests by surprise.
"Who here knows what the Harris County District Clerk's office does?" he asked. "Who knows what we do?"
The response was scattered laughter, but no hands were raised.
Jackson went on to ask, "How do you know if I'm doing a good job if you don't know what job I'm supposed to be doing?"
A brief explanation followed, in which Jackson explained that the primary function of the District Clerk's office is providing custodial care and access to all of the records of all court cases that are filed in the district courts of Harris County. This comprises over 200,000 case filings per year. The District Clerk's office is also charged with making all of these records available to the public.
When Jackson took office nine months ago as Harris County District Court Clerk, he had a mission and a goal to ramp up the technology, and to save tax payers money at the same time.
The 200,000-plus cases filed per year in Harris County create more than five million pieces of paper. In addition, there is the cost involved in staffing required to process, store and maintain all of this paper. Paper filing was the norm when Jackson took office. He decided to take the office into a new direction: digitizing all information.
"We are trying to reduce the paper used, to digitize all documents and make them available to the public," said Jackson.
The Harris County District Clerk's office is setting the standard in Texas and across the nation with its online accessibility for filing cases and allowing people to find information. People from all over the country are turning to this office as a model for how to accomplish this.
"We are now the national model for this," said Jackson. "Our new Web site provides unprecedented access to the public, it is revolutionary in concept and it is available right now."
Jackson also explained how his office has saved citizens money since he became District Clerk, slashing unnecessary costs such as $12,000 per year that used to be spent on bottled water for the office. A call center for the office that was located in San Antonio was replaced with an on-site center, utilizing retirees as staff. This results in a savings of $400,000 per year. Jackson cited many other examples of the cost-cutting measures he has enacted in his nine months as District Clerk.
In August, the office launched their new Web site. The site offers unparalleled case information access to the public. Previously, only civil case files could be accessed. Currently, users can access not only civil files, but criminal cases as well. In addition, users can run local criminal background checks, and this is a free service.
Users can also check to see what new cases have been filed, check the status of ongoing cases, and even find naturalization records going back more than a century. In addition, members of the media, and any other interested parties, can track specific cases and get automatic notifications of any new filings. For more information, visit www.hcdistrictclerk.com.
- Anne McIlhany
Humble Area Chamber Hosts Harris County District Clerk Jackson
District Clerk's Office makes office accessible onlineWhen Harris County District Clerk Loren Jackson spoke at the September Humble Area Chamber luncheon, his first question took the guests by surprise.
"Who here knows what the Harris County District Clerk's office does?" he asked. "Who knows what we do?"
The response was scattered laughter, but no hands were raised.
Jackson went on to ask, "How do you know if I'm doing a good job if you don't know what job I'm supposed to be doing?"
A brief explanation followed, in which Jackson explained that the primary function of the District Clerk's office is providing custodial care and access to all of the records of all court cases that are filed in the district courts of Harris County. This comprises over 200,000 case filings per year. The District Clerk's office is also charged with making all of these records available to the public.
When Jackson took office nine months ago as Harris County District Court Clerk, he had a mission and a goal to ramp up the technology, and to save tax payers money at the same time.
The 200,000-plus cases filed per year in Harris County create more than five million pieces of paper. In addition, there is the cost involved in staffing required to process, store and maintain all of this paper. Paper filing was the norm when Jackson took office. He decided to take the office into a new direction: digitizing all information.
"We are trying to reduce the paper used, to digitize all documents and make them available to the public," said Jackson.
The Harris County District Clerk's office is setting the standard in Texas and across the nation with its online accessibility for filing cases and allowing people to find information. People from all over the country are turning to this office as a model for how to accomplish this.
"We are now the national model for this," said Jackson. "Our new Web site provides unprecedented access to the public, it is revolutionary in concept and it is available right now."
Jackson also explained how his office has saved citizens money since he became District Clerk, slashing unnecessary costs such as $12,000 per year that used to be spent on bottled water for the office. A call center for the office that was located in San Antonio was replaced with an on-site center, utilizing retirees as staff. This results in a savings of $400,000 per year. Jackson cited many other examples of the cost-cutting measures he has enacted in his nine months as District Clerk.
In August, the office launched their new Web site. The site offers unparalleled case information access to the public. Previously, only civil case files could be accessed. Currently, users can access not only civil files, but criminal cases as well. In addition, users can run local criminal background checks, and this is a free service.
Users can also check to see what new cases have been filed, check the status of ongoing cases, and even find naturalization records going back more than a century. In addition, members of the media, and any other interested parties, can track specific cases and get automatic notifications of any new filings. For more information, visit www.hcdistrictclerk.com.
- Anne McIlhany
Pol. Adv. Paid for by the Loren Jackson Campaign, Brad Beers, Treasurer. Copyright © 2009 Loren Jackson. All rights reserved.
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