The Common Pleas Criminal Court Case Management System (CPCMS) provides case management, accounting, and reporting functions to the common pleas criminal courts in the Commonwealth. The primary users of the systems are the judges and chambers staff, court administration and the clerks of courts. In many counties, probation, collections and other departments use the system extensively. The information in the system is made available to ancillary criminal justice agencies in the counties through a secure web docket sheet function.
CPCMS interacts extensively with many state criminal justice agencies through JNET and directly. All 67 counties in Pennsylvania are using CPCMS serving approximately 9000 users. A major benefit of the system is enhanced availability of comprehensive case information to the public, via the Internet, at no cost.
Major benefits of CPCMS are:
- Sharing of statewide warrant, bail, defendant and other case information
- Providing an electronic court case event message from CPCMS containing MDJS and CPCMS disposition information that is delivered through JNET to the Pennsylvania State Police Criminal History Repository
- Making available the web application, DA Link, a program designed to allow prosecutors to electronically file bills of information into CPCMS, eliminating redundant data entry
- Providing PennDOT with electronic information regarding traffic offenses, including dispositions
- Providing statewide electronic data to the Department of Revenue on a monthly basis
- Providing statewide electronic data to the Auditor General which reduces the time needed to audit clerks of courts and magisterial district courts
- Providing a uniform method of disbursing monies collected through the courts that is in compliance with applicable law
- Providing an interface with the Pennsylvania Sentencing Commission’s Sentencing Guidelines Software;
- Providing the ability to provide statewide information to the public
During 2008, a major CPCMS activity is the development of a module to provide case management and reporting information for child dependency cases. The dependency module will complement the Supreme Court’s Office of Children and Families in the Courts initiative by providing meaningful statewide data on dependency cases and their outcomes. The Court will be able to focus its efforts on supporting programs that produce successful outcomes for dependency children and to work with counties to better manage these cases. Judicial Automation has worked closely with the Juvenile Procedural Rules Committee, Juvenile Court Judges’ Commission and the Department of Public Welfare to design statewide dependency forms used within the application. These forms are available on the AOPC web site.