ENOTIFY HAS ARRIVED

E-NOTIFY IS HERE! We see storm clouds on the horizon....Here is the news release. First concern is that it was apparently issued from a basement in Moscow.

Encouraged by the results of a three-county pilot program, Florida court officials said Wednesday they have launched “e-Notify” statewide.

“The e-Notify project has expanded to support criminal case searches throughout the state,” said Office of State Courts Administrator public information officer Paul Flemming.

Since October, defendants and other interested parties in Orange, Okaloosa, and Nassau counties have been able to receive digital reminders — via text, email, or both — about pending court appearances and other milestones in criminal cases.

Rumpole notes that those are the big three- anything that works in Orange, Okaloosa and Nassau counties must work everywhere else. 

“Nobody can even get to the dentist on time without some sort of text or email,” said Okaloosa Court Clerk JD Peacock III. “That’s just the way the world works these days.”

With all due respect to JD the clerk, we manage to get to the dentist just fine without a text. Try Uber JD. It works better.

E-Notify users are directed to a website where they register for free. In addition to choosing how they are alerted, users also have a choice of when they are alerted — any combination of 14-days, seven-days, or the day before....

“My judges here in Okaloosa County are loving it, they’re all over it,” Peacock said.

Well, as they say on Broadway, How does it play with the Oklaoosa judiciary? Because as the song says, If you can make it in Okaloosa, you can make it anywhere. A Google search reveals that Okaloosa is a Choctaw word meaning "black water, weak wifi"

Judges are urging defendants to register when they issue instructions, Peacock said.

Oh this should be good.  "Sir you are charged with hacking into the Okaloosa National Bank. In order to make sure you return to court, please register at our website."

The system went online in October, but promotion didn’t begin until December. By January 7, some 90 users had registered, and the system had issued 269 email alerts and 337 text reminders.

Well 90 users in a State of 21 million seems like a fair sample...

Some refinements had to be made, including changing the language of the alerts to refer to names instead of case numbers, Flemming said.

Yes, sending alerts in Swedish isn't advisable. 

The system was designed to lower failure-to-appear rates, but court officials soon realized that crime victims, advocates, and others could benefit, too.

...

The system could also be a time-saver for court clerks, Peacock said.

“My office gets calls all day long just from people trying to figure out their court dates,” he said.

Of course they don't answer the phones, so it's no big deal, but they still get the phone calls. 

Court officials are studying ways to expand e-Notify to civil cases, but that could be more complicated because the system is less centralized, Peacock said.

“Technology optimization remains one of our main priorities,” Butterfield said. “Technology enhances our operations, but most importantly, it makes our customers’ lives easier and provides them with more convenient access to our services.”

And here is a message from the Developer:

Мы похороним вас за использование нашей techonoloy янки дурак

My pokhoronim vas za ispol'zovaniye nashey techonoloy yanki durak