Judges refuse to order fix for court software that put people in jail by mistake

Further Reading Public defender lambastes judicial ruling to not fix flawed court software On Wednesday, a California appeals court denied efforts to overturn a county court’s decision not to intervene in an ongoing dispute between the public defender’s office and the administrative arm of the Alameda County Superior Court itself. The dispute is over allegedly flawed court software.

The public defender, Brendon Woods, has argued since December 2016 that a recent upgrade is inadequate for Alameda County and has resulted in many mistaken jailings. In March 2017, a local judge rejected Woods’ demands to fix the software, which is known as Odyssey Court Manager and made by Tyler Technologies.

The 1st Appellate District, a state-level appeals court based in San Francisco, ruled that Woods lacked standing to bring the appeal “in his own right.” Even if there was standing, the plaintiffs did not establish that they would “suffer harm or prejudice in a manner that cannot be corrected on appeal.”

“They also fail to show that they lack an adequate remedy at law, as they may move for correction of erroneous records at any time,” the 1st District continued.

Further Reading Software results in mistaken arrests, jail time? No fix needed, says judge As Ars reported in December 2016, the Alameda County Superior Court switched from a decades-old courtroom management software to a much more modern one on August 1, 2016.

However, since then, the public defender’s office has filed approximately 2,000 motions informing the court that, due to its reportedly imperfect software, many of its clients have been forced to serve unnecessary jail time, be improperly arrested, or even wrongly registered as sex offenders.

Woods, Alameda County Court Executive Officer Chad Finke, and Tyler Technologies were not immediately available for comment.