Chief justice celebrates 'access to justice' with clerk's office

Details: Lance Martin; News; 28 April 2025; 2912

User Rating: 5 / 5

The Halifax County Clerk of Courts Office today welcomed Chief Justice Paul Newby as eCourts went live.

The first case filed in Halifax County Sunday afternoon dealt with an injury to personal property case in civil court by Weldon attorney Ronnie Reeves, Clerk of Court Lisa Turner said.

“It’s not been as bad as I expected it to be,” Turner said prior to Newby’s arrival. “It’s been very trying but not as bad as I thought.”

Today, with the aid of state staff, clerks were entering “everything that happened Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,” Turner said.

View the embedded image gallery online at:
https://www.rrspin.com/news/10382-chief-justice-celebrates-access-to-justice-with-clerk-s-office.html#sigProId809d4878c7

There is no particular protocol of entering cases in a specific order, she said. “We did everything we could beforehand. We did all the scanning, printed every calendar up through January of next year and made sure the shucks were here so had something to compare it to and make sure everything transferred over. So really now we’re just putting stuff in that came in the dark period and now we’re just rolling.”

Staff, Turner said, “Have worked so hard. I could not be anymore thankful to have the staff I do. They have worked so hard. They’ve worked overtime. They’ve gone to training, mock courts, and gave up family time.”

Sunday was a full work day. “We were here before 8:30 and left at 4:30.”

Turner can’t say with certainty how eCourts will go in Halifax County. “I think for some departments it’s going to be better — I think for estates, bookkeeping and some of civil, I think that’s going to be a lot better.”

With 15,000 total pending criminal case files representing a combination of district and superior in the vault — that part remains unknown.

District Judge Jamal Summey said, “There’s several other tracks that have been before and it shouldn’t be that bad. It’s like anything else. It’s kind of like diving off a diving board. You can't dive into the water until you get on the board and take the plunge, or it’s like learning how to swim. You can't learn to swim until you jump in the water and to learn how to ride a bike you’ve got to get on the bike.”

For Summey, “Once we get it up and running it’ll be a lot smoother, a lot easier because you won’t have to do paper filings because this will all be electronic.”

Before he addressed the court staff, Newby said, “We’re very blessed. All the clerks and their staff, the judges — everyone is working really hard to learn something new. New is challenging.”

He said, however, “Everybody appreciates it when we’re finished. It’s going to be a lot better for everybody — including the public so that they can access cases.”

Newby said the system will get better in a couple of ways. “One, it’s a great document protection system as opposed to just having papers that can get lost, destroyed. It’s going to have documents saved electronically.”

More importantly, he said, “It’s really an access to justice. People across Halifax County and across the state are going to be able to pull up their case files, communicate hopefully better with the court, with the parties and all these other things that come with our electronics.”

People are already used to emails and texts, he said, “The new electronic filing system is going to be something along those lines in terms of enhancing communication.”

In addressing the staff of the clerk's office, Newby said, “We’re here because we wanted to express our appreciation to y’all and give you about five minutes away from work.”

In frankness, he said, “Let’s be clear. We know that change is difficult and we know that y’all sacrificed your families, sacrificed y’all being here yesterday and all that you had to do to be sure we went live today.”

To the judges, he said, “I’m so grateful for their leadership because they have assured me that the words for today are patience and kindness, and gentleness. That’s what I expect from my judges. I expect that from the attorneys.”

Newby said something like eCourts “truly takes all of us working together.”

Ryan Boyce, director of the state Administrative Office of the Courts, thanked the staff not only for their work today and this week “but really what y’all have been doing the last few weeks and months. If you look at it as kind of the kickoff to the Super Bowl, you know teams don’t go in without practicing or preparing. That’s what you all have been doing the last two months — really all of 2025.”

He said, “I want to be sure to thank you all for that work as well as your work going forward. The silver lining with all this change is we usually only have one transition to the courthouse once every 50 years so we won’t have to do that for a little bit.”

State Representative Rodney Pierce, who once interned at the district attorney's office, said, “To be in this space in another role just shows me how important your work is. Now to be in this role where I can support you I’m very happy to be in that role where I can support you.”

Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Brenda recognized Chief District Court Judge Teresa Freeman for her work on eCourts. “Whenever they sent out directives for us, someone had to organize it and get people in the places they needed to be. Judge Freeman did a wonderful job making sure that we had all of those things in place.”