Possible Settlement in eCourts Lawsuit

Litigation over the state’s $100 million digital records system could soon be settled, according to new court documents. 

Two people who said they were wrongfully detained due to problems with eCourts initially filed a class-action lawsuit three years ago against Tyler Technologies, the company behind the new digital court record system. The number of plaintiffs eventually grew to 13 and is currently nine. On June 3, attorneys for those plaintiffs filed a motion asking a judge to stay discovery, which is the process used to exchange information between parties in a civil lawsuit. 

“Plaintiffs and Tyler Technologies have been engaged in settlement discussions for months and are finalizing the terms of a proposed settlement, which would avoid the costs and uncertainty of future litigation and contain no admission of liability by either Plaintiffs or Tyler Technologies,” wrote plaintiffs’ attorneys in the motion. “Plaintiffs and Tyler Technologies anticipate executing a settlement agreement in the near future.”

The motion says the parties hope to finalize a settlement in the next 30 days. A judge has not yet ruled on the motion, but Tyler has consented to the discovery stay. 

“Tyler believes the plaintiffs’ claims in the litigation have no merit,” wrote Tyler attorney Greg Skidmore in a statement. The company is “exploring a potential settlement to avoid the costs and uncertainty of litigation” and emphasized that the settlement is not finalized. 

“If the settlement is finalized, the settlement will not contain any admission of liability by either the plaintiffs or Tyler,” Skidmore said. 

Plaintiffs’ attorneys declined to comment. Their suit alleged that eCourts had led to people being wrongfully arrested multiple times on the same warrant or held in jail longer than they should have been. Timia Chaplin, one of the first plaintiffs, said an eCourts glitch caused her to be rearrested on charges in Wake County that had been dismissed nearly a month earlier. 

The lawsuit added to an already growing list of problems as eCourts expanded throughout the state. N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts initially launched the system in four pilot counties—Lee, Wake, Harnett and Johnston—in February 2023. Lawyers described the rollout as a nightmare, saying glitches and errors in online records created backlogs that took hours or even days to get through. 

Tyler Technologies landed a $100 million, 10-year contract to develop North Carolina’s digital judicial records system, despite numerous legal claims involving the company in other communities. For example, in 2011, Merced, California, had a breakdown in communications between its criminal court and its jail after adopting Odyssey, eCourts cloud-based integration case-management system. 

In 2016, public defenders in Alameda County, California, discovered dozens of cases in which people had been wrongfully arrested, jailed when they should have been freed, or incorrectly told that they needed to register as sex offenders, after adopting Tyler’s Odyssey system. Inmates filed a class-action lawsuit against Shelby County, Tennessee, officials, Tyler Technologies, and others, alleging that Odyssey had caused wrongful arrests, longer-than-necessary detentions, and other issues. The lawsuit was settled for nearly $5 million.

NCAOC officials and other defendants were dismissed from the lawsuit, leaving only Tyler Technologies and Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden. NCAOC officials have publicly stated that any errors or problems were within the parameters of what one would expect from such a massive transition. 

Even if a settlement is reached in the class action suit against Tyler, litigation is far from over. The claims against McFadden are still pending.