CASSOPOLIS — Inside the Cass County Law and Courts building in Cassopolis, there are rooms filled with folders upon folders of old case files. Though this is the way the courthouse has looked for decades, soon the shelves of folders will be empty, as the county is moving to a new e-filing system.

Thursday afternoon, local attorneys and legal assistants were trained on the new filing system, which court officials said will streamline processes, add security and improve the functionality of the court house. Cass County Friend of the Court and the Cass County Clerk’s office have been using the system since 2016 to manage family court files, but now there is a push to have the entire court under the new filing system, called OnBase, as a result of a state-wide mandate. The project to integrate Cass County Courts into the new system is scheduled to take place in late 2019 or early 2020.

Deputy Friend of the Court Sarah Mathews said the new e-filing system will make lives easier for both court employees and members of the public.

“[The E-filing system] has had so many benefits for the both the staff here and the public,” Mathews said. “It used to be that someone would call here with a question about a child support case and we would either have to call them back or put them on hold while we searched for the file they needed, which may have been in an entirely different building. Now, we can look up the case right away. … Multiple people can also look at the file at the same time now, which obviously couldn’t be done before.”

Now instead of asking for files at the teller window and waiting for a clerk to assist them, members of the public can enter a private room in the court building to access OnBase and search for the case file they are looking for. People can search by case number, partial case number or name. Eventually, the court will add additional kiosks for people to search for files using OnBase once the demand increases and the court goes fully live with the product in 2019 and 2020.

“It just made things easier and more streamlined and more private,” Mathews said.

In addition to creating better service to the public, Mathews said the new e-filing system will increase security of the files. Before, the physical files were susceptible to damage and could potentially be lost. The new e-filing system is backed up on multiple servers, so files can never be lost, specific security clearances are needed to view certain files and the program keeps a full history of everyone who has viewed the file or edited it.

“It’s very secure,” Mathews said. “It automatically keeps track of things that may have been harder for us to monitor before.”

Though there is still more training needed for court staff for OnBase and the staff also currently has its hands full loading old files into the system, Mathews said she is excited for the change and believes that, ultimately, the moved to e-filing is one that is good for the county.

“This was something that is needed, and I think that once everyone knows how to use the system they will agree,” she said.