GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) – It’s been three months since the official rollout of eCourts, an online application that digitizes our court systems.

Here in the East, 12 counties are currently using it.

Two weeks after its debut on February 5th, people ran into problems after a 41-page amended lawsuit said the software had holes that caused repeat arrests, longer jail and/or prison times, and user headaches.

While the software is designed to make it easier to access court documents and lower paper use, District Attorney Seth Edwards says issues are still present.

“We just sit back and it spins, it spins, it spins, and we just have to wait for the case to pull up. I think that the state is working on that. I don’t think that it’s simply an internet bandwidth issue. That is one of the things the state has tried to come in to make sure we have significant bandwidth,” Edwards told WITN.

Along with delays, Edwards also says some aspects of the new system just won’t be the same as before.

Though he says there’s not enough shelf space in the state for all the paper, he says having paper documents in court is more convenient. “There’s some simple tasks in court where we could be performing a typical task in court that could take 30 seconds and now it’s going to take several minutes for us to get through that task, and that’s just the reality of the system.”

WITN has also had issues accessing court documents such as warrants and case filings due to delays in the system.

Edwards says there’s no timeline on when these problems will be fixed by the state however, he is confident the state is doing everything it can and ultimately believes eCourts is the way of the future.

According to Edwards, eCourts is still being rolled out in phases but should be completed in every county statewide by the summer or fall of 2025.

Edwards also told WITN that the issues have been challenging for the staff and encouraged people to be patient during the transition.