Mission Statement
The mission of the office of the Clerk of the
Circuit Court of Ogle County is to serve the citizens of Ogle County
and the participants in the Judicial System in a timely, efficient,
and ethical manner. In accordance with statutes, all service's,
information, and court records will be provided with courtesy and
cost efficiency.
April 30, 1993
Martin Typer,
Ogle County Circuit Clerk
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 Traffic and
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 Meetings, 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, Judicial Center 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 Association, Social Services
Agencies, Civil Litigants, Criminal Defendants, Witnesses, Jurors,
and the Voters. They have all come to expect world class
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 2005 the
Circuit Clerk has been located on three floors of the 1890
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 divisions were
on the first floor, while the records retention area was located in
the basement of the 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 requests 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 begin to occupy the new Judicial Center
and much improvement was anticipated when it opened in 2005.
In January 1994, the Ogle
County Circuit Clerk's office implemented an automated database for
all divisions. The terminals are available in all courtrooms,
Probation Office's States Attorney offices, and Public Access is
available in the resource room. While implementation of this
massive database had the usual "glitches", it has been a great step
forward for the Ogle County Judicial System. Significant time
savings for Civil, Child 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 manpower 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 database 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 demonstrative evidence.
In 2002, the Ogle County
Circuit Clerk began to scan images of documents from most case types
into the database so judges and Court Personnel could 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 proven to be a great labor
saver only for the Circuit Clerk's office, but for the 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 Greene County Wisconsin, Boone, Stephenson,
DeKalb Counties as well as the 2nd Appellate Court, and the 17th
Circuit judges have come to review our systems to see if it would
work for them.
Since the Ogle County board
dedicated the Judicial Center in 2005, several further enhancements
were incorporated for electronic presentation and storage of
evidence, record storage, and customer service. In August
2007, the first e-warrant in Illinois was processed thru the Ogle
County Courts and are waiting for implementation by the Ogle County
Sheriff. The Circuit Clerk Staff continue to actively review
policy and procedures to ensure continued efficiency to the future
