North Carolina electronic courts management lawsuit can continue against developer, sheriff
GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — A federal lawsuit alleging North Carolina’s new electronic courts records and case management system contributed to unlawful arrests or extended jail detainments can continue against the system’s developer and a county sheriff, a judge ruled this week.
U.S. District Judge William Osteen declined to dismiss the “eCourts” system litigation against Tyler Technologies and Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden, meaning the lawsuit can continue to trial against them. But Osteen dismissed Wake County Sheriff Willie Rowe from the lawsuit.
About a dozen people are suing over eCourts from when its case management software was implemented in Wake and three other pilot counties in February 2023 and in Mecklenburg County several months later. Now the case management software serves 62 North Carolina counties and is expected to reach the remaining 38 counties by this fall.
The plaintiffs contend that software errors and human errors led to multiple arrests on the same warrants and extra time in jail after release conditions were met. The plaintiffs allege several dozen people spent extra time in the Mecklenburg County jail during the first days of the eCourts’ rollout in the county.
Osteen ruled Monday in central North Carolina federal court that, in the prediscovery phase of the lawsuit, the plaintiffs have plausibly alleged that Tyler Technologies breached its duty to ensure its software worked and lacked defects that led to unlawful arrests and detentions. As for McFadden, the plaintiffs in part also have plausibly alleged “their constitutional injury was caused by the Mecklenburg Sheriff’s Office failure to train its deputies on how to use the eCourts software,” Osteen wrote.
Rowe was granted his dismissal because he held “statutory immunity” for any alleged negligence associated with executing warrants, Osteen ruled, and the plaintiffs haven’t alleged their arrests constituted a constitutional injury within the judicial system.
Last year, lawsuit plaintiffs ended voluntarily civil claims against two leaders of the state Administrative Office of the Courts, which is implementing the system, some state court clerks and another sheriff.
No trial date has been set. The plaintiffs’ lawsuit also seeks to expand the litigation to cover additional people who contend they were jailed longer or wrongly arrested because of eCourts.