Dade Courts Subpoena System Goes Digital

MIAMI (CBS4) - Miami-Dade County's court services will mark a digital milestone this month when they go paper free when it comes to subpoena and court notices.

e-Notify was slowly been implemented throughout the county's court system for the last three years. For the past year it has been running in parallel with the paper system; all that comes to an end on February 28th when the county will go digital only.

Miami-Dade Commissioner Sally A. Heyman, who spearheaded the new system, said e-Notify will "save thousands of manpower hours related to court proceedings, allow police departments to redirect officers and resources to increase public safety, meet green initiatives and save millions of dollars".

Prior to e-Notify staff would print and process thousands of police officer notices and subpoenas every month. Notices run the gamut from requests for the officer to appear for meetings or to testify in court to requests for the officer to provide reports and evidence.

So just how much paper will not longer be pushed?

According to Heyman, court delivery of more than 600-thousand paper subpoenas or notices annually (50,000+ a month) will be a thing of the past.

The state attorney's office said before eNotify, staff never received acknowledgment from an officer as to whether or not they were going to appear for a pre-filing of charges meetings or charging decision meetings. If the officer failed to appear, the meeting would have to be re-scheduled, sometime three or four times. These delays seriously hampered the prosecutor's ability to file cases in a timely manner.