County prosecutor begins move to paperless system

The Greene County Prosecuting Attorney's Office is in cost-cutting mode, and one method the office is using to reduce expenses is by going paperless.

The office began the phased implementation of an electronic file system Jan. 1, Greene County Prosecuting Attorney Darrell Moore wrote in the Springfield Metropolitan Bar Association's latest newsletter.

Under the implementation process, cases filed on or after Jan. 1 will be maintained electronically. Cases filed before Jan. 1, however, will remain in paper form, as there is not room in the county budget to scan older files.

Moore said his office will keep the same open-file policy as in the past. Attorneys will still get paper copies of older case files upon request, while electronic files will be available to attorneys via e-mail or download onto an attorney-provided CD or DVD.

"The cost to your clients of discovery for post-2010 files, therefore, will be reduced as copying expenses for police reports and other discoverable documents in our files will be eliminated," Moore wrote.

Moore noted that five support staff positions have been eliminated in recent months in the prosecutor's office due to county budget cutbacks, and two of those positions were file clerks, making manpower scarce to scan paper files from the old system.