The eCourts Legal Saga May Be Over

Tyler Technologies, the company behind North Carolina’s $100 million eCourts digital records system, has settled a federal lawsuit alleging that its platform led to wrongful arrests and delays in getting out of jail, according to an entry in the U.S. District Court docket. 

The final settlement agreement must be filed by October 16 and approved by a judge. 

The May 2023 class-action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in the Middle District of North Carolina approximately three months after the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts (NCAOC) rolled out eCourts in Wake, Harnett, Lee, and Johnston counties. Lawyers immediately complained that the digital records system turned once-simple processes, like securing bonds, into legal knots that were nearly impossible to untangle. Despite the complaints, NCAOC officials insisted everything was fine.

Some plaintiffs in the suit alleged they had been wrongfully arrested on inactive warrants because of the system’s errors. Others said they were held in jail for days—even weeks—after they posted bonds or satisfied the conditions of their release. In March 2023, snags in the eCourts system forced Harnett County officials to close many district courtrooms for a week. 

The N.C. Conference of District Attorneys asked NCAOC to halt the expansion of eCourts to additional jurisdictions in April 2024, but it was quickly rolled out in all 100 counties. The state paid Tyler Technologies  $100 million for an initial 10-year contract.

The lawsuit currently has nine plaintiffs, down from 13 in 2023. Several of the original defendants, including the NCAOC, have been voluntarily dismissed, leaving only Tyler Technologies and Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden. No trial date has been set. Until the settlement is finalized, the claims against Tyler are still pending, and a judge is still scheduled to decide whether to certify the lawsuit as a class action. Certifying the suit would broaden the settlement’s scope, potentially making it applicable to thousands of North Carolina residents. 

Specific settlement details have not yet been released. Gagan Gupta, an attorney for the plaintiffs, declined to comment Thursday, and a representative for Tyler declined to comment. Greg Skidmore, one of Tyler’s attorneys, said in June that Tyler wouldn’t admit liability in any settlement agreement.

The Texas-based technology company has faced similar complaints in other states, including California, Texas, Tennessee, and Indiana. An investigation by Injustice Watch and the Chicago Tribune found that in Illinois, Cook County and state officials approved the use of millions of taxpayer dollars for three projects involving Tyler Technologies that were plagued by software crashes and delayed rollouts. 

In 2015, inmates in Marion County, Indiana, sued the local sheriff, alleging that Odyssey, Tyler’s cloud-based case-management software, led to multiple cases of wrongful incarceration. The sheriff jailed one inmate for two days after his acquittal, allegedly owing to a glitch. 

Similarly, a Tennessee man claimed an error in the Odyssey system put him in jail for two weeks instead of two days. In 2016, Tyler Technologies settled with him and 29 other inmates for nearly $5 million.