Those looking to navigate their own court proceedings with more information through the new Odyssey system for Jefferson County will now have to pay an annual $25 fee.

After a mandated public hearing during the county commissioners’ regular session July 2, Commissioners David Sullivan and Kate Dean, who joined via phone to make a quorum, approved the county ordinance. 

Registration will give an attorney or party of record the ability to view contact information for other parties, their hearings in a calendar and other information provided by the court.

County Clerk Ruth Gordon recalled the county adopted the Odyssey case management system last November because the county could not fund its own system. “The Portal is the public facing portion of Odyssey where users can go to search and view publicly available case information,” reads an information sheet given to the commissioners. 

The previous Electronic Court Records Management System included a web portal for public viewing of cases but did not provide additional information about parties, details about criminal charges or other items.

“The only reason people are (interested in) Odyssey Portal is to see our records, but they are on Laserfiche, not Odyssey ... therefore I have no subscribers,” she told the commissioners. 

If there were someone who would like to register, she would help them do so, Gordon added – not because it is  mandated, but because it is a part of her job description. 

System registration involves a confidentiality agreement and requires other information that would be entered into an application; the process takes about a half hour for each user.

The ordinance implementing the $25 fee comes from the “Like Fee Statute” comparing the registration cost to what a passport would cost. The fee would defray the cost of keeping a new record series and of other endeavors keeping the system current on the county’s side.

During public comment, citizens raised concern about people who represent themselves who would have to pay more than the $25, citing a document provided to the commissioners. Gordon responded to the comments, citing the “Like Fee Statute” to explain the fee will be set at $25, not the $100 or $600 that was supposed. She noted language in the ordinance would allow her successors to up the fee if an increase was deemed necessary or if the federal government modified its prices.

She also clarified the system would give users access to case management – not any legal records in Jefferson County or other counties. 

“You can get any public records that you want through our office,” she said, insisting the fee would stay the same, unless the office does more than it currently is undertaking, which she did not believe it would.

The $100 to $600 price point mentioned reflected what other counties charge law offices having subscriptions for document management systems, Gordon noted.

She also said those who represent themselves would not need to pay the “pro se” fee, just the $25, and those who are involved in certain actions would be allowed to see their “docket,” which the public can’t see. 

“Our public is safe even though the ordinance is silent on the topic,” she said.

Dean asked what factors were considered when switching over to Odyssey. Gordon answered as a custodian of county records, her office essentially forfeits any control of rights and roles over the documents. 

“There have been cases in other counties where one clerk from one staff could overwrite the records from another county,” Gordon explained.

Chief Civil Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Philip Hunsucker added the ordinance protects the public from exorbitant fees and is based on other counties’ ordinances and the Revised Code of Washington that was mentioned in authorizing light fees.