CHARLESTON — The COVID-19 pandemic shut down courthouses and kept people home, making online services such as West Virginia's Circuit Express vital for attorneys and those who need access to court records.
Butch Evans, the president of Software Computer Group, said circuit courts have become short-staffed during the pandemic, making it difficult to get information sometimes because they are stretched so thin.
"The virus has caused most circuit court staff to work with a reduced staff," Evans said in an interview with The West Virginia Record. "The courts are still docketing actions taken by mail, e-mail and judges. Their limited staff makes it almost impossible to provide information on court cases for outside inquires."
Evans
Evans said the Coronavirus has made things difficult for the courts, but Circuit Express has been working with its 20 clients and helping them provide access to the people in those counties.
"Our Circuit Express has been a great help allowing entities ... to view dockets and images," Evans said. "During these trying times, the Circuit Express subscription service is waving the $125 monthly subscription signup fee and will pre-bill you the $38 monthly fee on the day you open the account on our website www.wvcircuitexpress.com."
Evans said the special pricing would continue through the end of August.
Circuit Express has been around for more than 20 years — since the days of dial-up internet — and started with Kanawha County back then.
Evans previously said that at that time, only one person could be on at a time and it wasn't until around 2009 that they started using the Circuit Express website and expanded to other counties.
Barbour, Brooke, Doddridge, Fayette, Grant, Hancock, Kanawha, Marshall, Mercer, Mingo, Mineral, Nicholas, Ohio, Pleasants, Pocahontas, Preston, Richie, Taylor, Wetzel, Wirt and Wyoming counties currently all participate with Circuit Express.
The counties scan their files each night into the program so that the files are up-to-date the following day. Typical subscribers to the service are law firms, state agencies, judicial entities, background checking firms, circuit judges, family judges, county probation officers and prosecuting attorneys' offices.
