The Yolo County District Attorney's Office has started using significantly less paper as a result of a grant and other funds.

The new paperless system has a total cost of about $200,000. Chief Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Raven said it is principally funded through the use of asset forfeiture funds, which is money seized from those convicted of certain drug-related offenses. Funding also came from a recently awarded grant of more than $26,000 from the Yolo Indian Gaming and Local Community Benefit Committee.

The estimated cost savings will be about $450,000 during the next three years, Raven said.

Yolo County is believed to be the first district attorney's office in California to implement the paperless system in the office and courtroom, said Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig.

Under the new paperless system, criminal cases files are created and maintained in a digital format that prosecutors can use in court through laptop computers and a wireless Internet connection.

Reisig said the paperless system is an effort to improve efficiency in the local criminal justice system and reduce the overall costs to taxpayers in the creation and maintenance of thousands of criminal case files every year.

Traditionally, each prosecution has required the creation of a paper file that is typically comprised of police reports, attorney motions, photographs and other documents, which secretarial staff maintains and prosecutors carry into court. The Yolo County District Attorney's Office initiates between 8,000 to 10,000 criminal prosecutions annually.

In many cases, multiple appearances are required in court before a case is resolved. Secretaries and attorneys prepared and appeared in court on almost 13,000 files in 2010.

"The amount of employee time that has typically gone into creating and caring for these thousands of paper files each year is staggering," Reisig said. "We estimate that thousands of hours of secretarial staff time in the past were spent simply locating files in one of our many file storage rooms or other locations."
The first major implementation of the paperless system occurred in April when digital files replaced paper files for all new misdemeanor cases. Attorneys were also equipped with the latest Hewlett Packard laptop computers for use in court.
"As a result, we have now successfully implemented the paperless office project in over 70 percent of all of our new case filings," Reisig said.

In addition, District Attorney's Office employees have scanned older case files on digital copiers and converted to digital files so that old paper files can be eliminated completely over time. Reisig expects the office to be 100 percent paperless in all new filings by late summer.

Reisig said the paperless system will also enable the District Attorney's Office to provide better service to victims of crime and to the general public and media through eliminating delays caused by having to manually search for a case file.
The paperless system is the result of a public and private collaboration between the Yolo County District Attorney's Office, Yolo County Information Technology and Telecommunications Department and SyTech Solutions, a California-based document and data management services company.