Wendy Parker

Weeks after a new online filing system was installed in Cobb Superior Court, a Cobb judge has declared a 30-day “judicial emergency,” saying that serious filing issues and delays are plaguing the new system and prompting many court proceedings to be ground to a halt.

In an order issued Wednesday, Gregory Poole, Chief Judge of the Cobb Judicial Circuit, said that much court business has been impacted by the changes, and issued a 30-day extension of deadlines for filing motions, setting court calendars and other proceedings.

The following items are covered under the order:

• the time within which to file a writ of habeas corpus;
• the time within which discovery or any aspect thereof to be completed;
• the time within which to serve a party;
• motions for new trial;
• answers in civil cases;
• the time within which to appeal or seek right to appeal any order, ruling, or other determination;
• and such other legal proceedings as determined to be necessary by the authorized judicial official.

  

(You can read Poole’s order by clicking here.)

The order applies only to Cobb Superior Court, which handles felonies, major civil litigation, divorces, child support matters and more. State Court, Magistrate Court, Probate Court and Juvenile Court systems in Cobb are not affected by the order, which is effective starting Wednesday.

In late June, Cobb Superior Court Clerk Connie Taylor installed a new court filing system, ICON CMS 360, replacing the old system, called CRIS. But the move was done without judges being informed, and with a bevy of errors and malfunctions that have been plaguing operations ever since, he said.

Poole’s order said that Taylor notified him on July 11 that e-filing would be unavailable for four days, then was extended to July 16.

On July 30, according to Poole’s order, the Clerk’s office notified him that the processing of some files would be delayed due to the CMS conversion, and some might not be visible in the system “for between 25 and 35 business days.”

In a release Wednesday, Cobb government said that “the issues most impactful to the administration of justice . . . include the inability of court staff and litigants to retrieve information about cases, inaccurate scheduling and notices, and inaccurate or incomplete documents.”

Poole conferred with the other 10 Superior Court judges before issuing the judicial emergency, which is allowed under Georgia law for an initial period of 30 days when serious problems arise to prevent the court from operating normally.

“The nature of the emergency is such that the Clerk of Superior Court’s CMS conversion has so disrupted the functioning of the court as to have substantially endangered or infringed upon the normal functioning of the judicial system,” Poole wrote in the order.

“The Chief Judge also believes that the CMS conversion has raised serious due process and other constitutional concerns.”

Among the problems cited by Poole in his order is the inability of law enforcement to locate bench warrants and protective orders, documents being filed with erroneous filing dates, legal parties being unable to to verify deadlines and access filings for their cases and lost documents, including criminal indictments and accusations.

“The Clerk’s Office has turned away litigants, attorneys, court reporters, and others from its front counter, refusing to accept documents presented for filing,” Poole wrote, adding that defense attorneys and their clients have not been getting the same access to the system as prosecutors.

In some cases, Poole said, indigent defendants were being charged to copy filed documents, and some criminal cases have been marked at closed, preventing staff, attorneys and litigants from gaining access.

“On several occasions, defendants in criminal cases called the Clerk’s Office to verify a court date and were told that no court date had been scheduled even though a court date had been set,” Poole continued. “This led to several defendants nearly missing or missing a court appearance and barely avoiding the issuance of a bench warrant.”

Taylor, a Democrat who is seeking a second term in November, has not commented publicly on the order of judicial emergency.

She is a state constitutional officer, and her term in office has been marked by controversy. She acknowledged personally pocketing $425,000 in passport fees—court clerks are allowed to do this—a sum that far exceeded her predecessors.

Taylor allegedly ordered one of her staffers to destroy documents related to the matter, telling her to “Donald Trump this thing.”

By end of last year, Taylor’s office was falling behind filing documents to the court systems, sometimes by several months.

In his order Wednesday, Poole said Taylor told him that many of the backlogs can be attributed to staff shortages.

Taylor—her annual salary is $170,000—drew three Democratic primary opponents in May, who all cited performance issues in the clerk’s office.

But she easily defeated them without a runoff.

Taylor’s general election opponent in November is Republican Deborah Dance, a former Cobb County Attorney and a former member of the Cobb Planning Commission.

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