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Vol. 14, No. 1 January 2018
Happy New Year!
We start the New Year with more paper
records converted to digital images, a new and faster way to get a marriage
license or passport on the horizon, and before you know it, a new Clerk! Happy
New Year from the Clerk’s office – we are looking forward to serving you
throughout 2018.
Online Appointments for
Marriage Licenses and Passports
In January and February the Clerk’s office will introduce an online
reservation system for marriage licenses and passport application appointments
to reduce wait times and get our customers back to more pressing details, like
planning their weddings and vacations. The Clerk’s website will allow customers
to choose the date, time, and location of the service they want and will be
able to send an email or text reminder as the appointment gets closer. Appointments
will be available at the Clerk’s downtown Phoenix location first, followed by
the Mesa facility, then to the regional centers. The appointment system will
only be for Clerk’s office locations – not for other courts authorized to issue
marriage licenses or for post offices that process passport applications. Watch
The Brief for updates or check the
office’s marriage license webpage (http://www.clerkofcourt.maricopa.gov/marlic.asp)
and passports page (http://www.clerkofcourt.maricopa.gov/passport.asp)
for the links to go live in January 2018.
Juvenile Record Scanning
Complete
In December, the Clerk’s
office completed its Juvenile Back-Scanning Project. The project, which began
in November 2016, was conducted to convert paper juvenile files from inactive
cases in all juvenile case types into scanned images. During the year-long
effort, Clerk staff prepared and scanned more than 10 million pages (more than
3 million documents). After scanning and quality control audits, the office
disposed of the paper documents, resulting in significant storage savings. The
newly scanned documents are part of the office’s comprehensive Electronic Court
Record (ECR), which is one of the nation’s largest among court agencies. A
complete ECR provides easier and faster access to documents for the public,
court, and the Clerk’s office. The scanned images retain the same level of
security and access that applied to the paper documents. The Clerk’s office
will now begin the same process with confidential and sealed documents on paper
in both adult and juvenile case types. The office projects 2.6 million pages of
paper will be scanned into the ECR by Spring 2018 as part of this new project.
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