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Court records could be lost.

Hall County District Court is not Y2K compatible Reports of Hall Countys District Court losing all of its files and records due to Y2K problems have County officials worried. Mixed words and misunderstandings have lead to finger pointing and blamingbut what is the real problem?

District Court Clerk, Linda Zimmerman, responding to the Hall County Board of Supervisors.

It is difficult to explain. The District courts computer system has been determined to not be Y2K compatible, and thats causing all sorts of problems. Mainly because District Court Clerk, Linda Zimmerman, allegedly knew about the Y2K problem two years ago but did nothing about it. Now, hundreds of court files are supposedly at risk of being lost. She has taken some heat from the Hall County Board of Supervisors, but Zimmerman says theyre wrong, and the sky is not falling.

In our filing cabinet, says Zimmerman, we have the actual court file with every filing and pleading in that file. There will be nothing thats going to be lost. All I need to retrieve from the old system is payments that were made. But others disagree. Well, begins Board of Supervisors Chairman, Bud Jeffries, they [the computer committee] told us that the child support portion was fine, but all of the civil and criminal cases would be destroyed as of the first of the year if we didnt write a new program and do it immediately. Computer expert, Will Bennett of Abacus Business Systems, disagrees with that position. No, thats not true. It isnt even an issue of whether the software package being used on that system will function or not. The problem is that we have been given a time-frame that we need to have that software package and its data off of that particular system. According to Bennett, files from the old system the District Court is using have to be converted to the new system by the end of the yearor all existing files on the old system will be inaccessible. Theyre planning on a seven to nine week project to write the new computer program, which will cost somewhere around $8,000. Reports of all court files being lost is inaccurate, but its crunch time to save the existing files.

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), October 18, 1999

Answers

My, oh my. Let's see:

- The experts disagree what needs to be done.

- The "blame game" is in full swing.

- Nobody really knows what will happen come Jan 1.

- Assuming that communications are functional, cops will be calling in to clerks to check for warrants and stolen cars and stuff.

I hope all this gets shown on upcoming "Cops" TV show episodes! "Bad computers, bad computers, what you going to do when they screw you?"

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), October 18, 1999.

so...Hall county board of supes just realized they have computers? What a shock that must have been!

-- eubie (eubie@notpointing.com), October 18, 1999.