The Iowa court system reached a milestone Wednesday as all 99 counties now have electronic filing. Court communications officer, Steve Davis, says it’s a monumental achievement for the courts. “The biggest part of this is access to justice,” Davis says, “now people can access the courts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which they weren’t able to do before.” Davis says a variety of people need access to court records.

Attorneys are large users with their cases, but there’s also a lot of Iowans who represent themselves in court. Small claims cases and cases like those where they might be able to work in the evening and file documents in the evening where previously they would have had to take time off of work and go to the courthouse,” Davis says. The electronic filing system makes it easier for everyone working on a case.

“It makes all the files available the parties at the same time — that’s one big convenience. Because, previously if someone else had the case file and someone else wanted to see a document in it, they’d have to wait. Now multiple people can view the same file at the same time,” according to Davis. The electronic system also cuts down on courtroom clutter.

“It removes a lot of the stacks of files and papers on that are on clerks’ desks that needed to be filed manually. Now they are filed electronically so they are not taking up as much space in the courtroom,” he says. The first electronic documents were filed in Plymouth County five years ago, and the system was then expanded to cover every county.

“It was tweaked and refined and the bugs were worked out,” Davis explains. “It’s a totally unique system to Iowa, it’s not an off-the-shelf program that we just took and implemented. The I-T department developed it and worked slowly so it works well for everyone.” The Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) includes more than six million documents filed by nearly 88-thousand users.

(Radio Iowa)

The Atlantic City Council, Wednesday, was introduced to Natalie Struecker, the new Director of the Atlantic Public Library.

Natalie Struecker (from her Linked-In page)

Struecker worked at the Rock Island, IL, Public Library, before coming to Atlantic, but she’s a native of Des Moines. She attended ISU and later received a Masters Degree from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.

Struecker has a background in programming and technology and has worked in libraries over the course of the past 18-years.

SAC CITY, Iowa (AP) – A 21-year-old man has made a plea deal on charges that he had provided alcohol to an underage youth who later was involved in a collision that killed two teenage girls. The Sioux City Journal reports that Matthias Stork, of Breda, is scheduled to be sentenced on July 15. He’s pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of selling, giving or supplying alcohol to a minor.

Prosecutors reduced the charges from felonies in exchange for Stork’s pleas. The deal also calls for a jail sentence of 360 days, with all but 45 days suspended, and two years of probation. Prosecutors say Stork supplied beer to Trevor Feauto in August. The 18-year-old Feauto, of Clarksville, has pleaded not guilty to charges of vehicular homicide.

A man wanted on warrants out of Missouri for being e Fugitive from Justice, was arrested late Wednesday night, in Montgomery County. Authorities say 41-year old Scott Roy Michaels, of Grant, was arrested at around 10:20-p.m. in the 1100 block of U Avenue, in Grant. Michaels was being held without bond in the Montgomery County Jail, while awaiting extradition to Missouri.