Listing of Attorneys in Ogle County
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Ogle County |
Office Overview
Illinois
state statutes state that the Duty of the Court Clerk is as follows:
Duty of the Clerks
The clerks shall attend the sessions of their respective
courts, preserve all the files and papers thereof, make, keep and preserve complete records of all the proceedings
and determinations thereof, except in cases otherwise provided by law, and do and
perform all other duties pertaining to their offices, as may be required by law or the rules
and orders of their courts respectively.
In order to efficiently and effectively manage these
duties, the areas of responsibility have been divided into three primary divisions which are Criminal,
Civil and Administration. In each area, the Chief Deputy is assigned to help facilitate
communications of goals and objectives between the Circuit Clerk and the Deputy Clerks. The
Circuit Clerk and the Chief Deputies meet regularly to review the current workloads, supplies, budget
needs, and any other problems that may develop. The full communications cycle is completed at
the Monthly Departmental Meeting, which is attended by all the employees of the Circuit
Clerk’s office along with the Circuit Clerk. At this time, all issues have a format to be discussed
and everyone can address any issue. Some key issues have been courtroom security, office
automation, safety and first aid, Courthouse security, and Customer Satisfaction training. These
meetings have been beneficial to everyone, and will continue.
The Circuit Clerk has many different ‘constituencies’ to serve including the
Judges, the County Board, States Attorney and Public Defender, Court Services, Law Enforcement, the
Ogle County Bar, Social Services Agencies, Civil Litigants, Criminal Defendants, Witnesses,
Jurors, and the Voters. They have come to expect professionalism in the Circuit Clerk’s office.
To maintain this high level of professionalism, the Circuit Clerk’s office continually reviews
laws, policies and procedures, staffing requirements, technology, and budgeting requirements to
increase efficiency and effectiveness.
Until the end of FY2005 the Circuit Clerk had been located on
three floors of the courthouse, the Morgue building, and Child Support was
located in the Health Administration Building. The Traffic division was
located on the second floor, the Civil and Criminal division were on the first
floor, while the records retention area was located in the basement of the 1890
Courthouse. This configuration of work space had some inherent problems.
The logistics to serve three courts on the second floor, one on the third floor,
and four separate service counters required a minimum of eight Deputy Clerks at
all times. To facilitate lunches, sick or vacation days, breaks, customer
request for searches and phone calls, we moved employees to meet these needs.
These moves were hampered by the volume of stairs and various buildings that
existed in the past configuration of the Circuit Clerk's office. In the
final days of FY2005, we were able to occupy the new Judicial Center
and much improvement was realized when it opened in FY2006.
In January 1994, the Ogle County Circuit Clerk’s office implemented an automated
data base for all divisions. The terminals are available in all courtrooms, Probation Offices,
States Attorney offices, and Public Access is available in the resource room.
While the implementation of this massive data base had the usual ‘glitches’, it has been a
great step forward for the Ogle County Judicial
system. Significant time savings for Civil, Support, and Accounting
divisions have been realized. Additional cost savings were realized in
1998 when the Graduated Drivers License went into
effect. A large manual reporting system would have been required if
the Circuit Clerk’s Office were not automated. Instead, the Automated
Reporting System was made to comply with these
additional requirements with no additional man power needed.
Several new technologies were incorporated in 1999 through 2001 to continue to
enhance customer services. These products include; Public Monitors in the courthouse
lobby to help customers find their courtrooms, Automated Disposition Reporting to
electronically file case outcomes with the Secretary of State, Administrative Office of the Illinois
Courts, and the Bureau of Investigation. The Ogle County Circuit Clerks data base is now available on
the Internet at www.oglecounty.org, go to ‘search for case information’ and follow the simple
program. This feature has saved much time for all the people needing this information as well
as being available at any time it is desired. Future projects include ‘e-filing’ of court
documents, and data transmissions directly from Law Enforcement Agencies (e-citation), and
electronic collection and storage of evidence (demonstrative evidence).
In 2002, we began to scan images of documents from all case types into the
database so Judges and Court Personnel can now view the court pleadings without retrieving the
paper copy . The images can be viewed through the computer system by everyone at the same time.
This system enhancement has already proven to be a great labor saver not only for the
Circuit Clerks office, but for Judges, Probation office, States Attorney, and the Public users of the
Court files. This system has received much acclaim from the Administrative Office of Illinois
Courts, the Illinois State Bar, local Attorneys, and other court system personnel. Contingencies from
Boone, Stephenson, and LaSalle Counties have come to review our systems to see if it
would work for them.
The Ogle County Board approved the construction of a new Judicial Center that
was dedicated in 2005. The first step was to build the Health Administration Building
where the Child Support Division was relocated to in the fall of 2003 before
moving to the Judicial Center in 2005. Several further enhancements were
incorporated for electronic presentation and storage of evidence, record
storage, and customer service.