On any given day as many as 25 percent of people scheduled to appear in court do not show, Judge Elizabeth Gutmann said.
For every person who does not appear, the hearing must be reset or a warrant issued for their arrest.
“It is just a lot of paperwork,” Gutmann said. Plus, when someone who forgot to show decides to come to court without a scheduled hearing, it can be time consuming as clerk’s pull files and parties needed to move the case along — lawyers, judges and others — have to be gathered.
With its initial agreement, the court will pay around 12 cents per call. Information already collected from people scheduled for court will be placed in a program provided by the call company to prepare for the automated call.
The call likely would go out the day before a scheduled hearing and include the date and time of hearing plus information on what could happen if they don’t show up and a phone number for the person to call with any questions.
“We want to remind them there could be serious consequences if they failed to appear. It doesn’t matter how ‘minor’ the offense, it is the same amount of paperwork,” Gutmann said.
Calls would go to those scheduled for an arraignment, pretrial conference, trial or a civil hearing, among others, she said.
In addition to cutting paperwork, the court hopes to reduce the number of people arrested on warrants and, potentially, brought to the county jail for an overnight or longer stay.
“Right now, jail beds are at a premium,” Gutmann said.
Sheriff Charles Cox, about a year ago, closed the county Incarceration Facility, where nonviolent offenders were held, leaving the county with just more than 100 jail beds. The closing was caused by budget cuts.
Not only is the jail space in big demand, but also the court clerk’s office staff has been reduced to a “skeleton” level by budget cuts, the judge said. “We want people here when we are here,” she said.
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