INDIANA PUBLIC RECORDS INQUIRY

The State of Indiana has over 400 trial courts, approximately 300 of which serve the state's 92 counties. The remaining courts serve smaller units of government: cities, towns, or townships. Although the types of cases these courts handle varies, meticulous records are kept in every case filed in every such court.  A large majority of Indiana courts maintain these records in court “dockets,” officially called the “chronological case summary” or “CCS,” on all their cases using a computer program called a "case management system" or "CMS."

The Indiana Supreme Court gave Court Technology the task of providing courts and clerks with a connected, statewide CMS. Following the recommendation of three review committees which oversaw a 10-month procurement process, the Indiana Supreme Court chose Tyler Technologies Inc. to provide its Odyssey Case Management System (Odyssey) to Indiana Courts and Clerks.

The Odyssey Case Management System is a fully integrated case and financial management system designed specifically for statewide deployment.  It is a web-based computer system, allowing configuration to be accomplished centrally, while still supporting both statewide and county-specific rules.  Standardization in the Odyssey CMS implements notable features, such as accurate Quarterly Case Status Reports.

Odyssey is also a person-based system, which allows for a directory of people and entities.  For example, a judge has the ability to access all criminal cases that a defendant has in other courts around the state. Odyssey is given to counties at no cost.