Rayne City Court sets bar in use of technology

First in nation to utilize smartphones to pay fines, enter some pleas

Steve Bandy
Rayne Acadian-Tribune

Smartphones have become the center of communications for everyone and Rayne City Court is using that technology to make it easy for citizens to handle some legal issues.
With smartphones, it is now possible for people to pay for citations and warrants from Rayne City Court. Their also is a text notification / reminder system that will greatly increase the collections and reduce warrants for the court.
“When we make it easy for citizens to plea and pay for their citations and warrant notices using their smartphones, we reduce defaults,” said Court Clerk Yvette Salvatierra.
Recently Rayne City Court was introduced to Citation Express through its court software company, the Denison Group. When it became apparent how Citation Express could increase collections of citations and warrants and reduce warrants, they wanted it — now.
Rayne City Court has become the first court in the nation to deploy this simple but effective solution. The patent pending concept, Citation Express has been developed by AdComp Systems Group, which provides smart payment solutions via kiosks, web / mobile and IVR for government agencies nationwide.
Their latest innovation Citation Express works as follows:
An officer, while issuing a citation, requests a cell phone number from the defendant. Citation Express then notifies, reminds and even allows the defendants to plead guilty or no contest and pay through their smartphones.
This secure and effective solution will reduce defaults and help citizens to easily and promptly manage the citations / court dates that they receive.
In just in a few weeks, hundreds have been notified and reminded via text messages to their cell phones and many have used Citation Express already, according to Salvatierra.
Rayne City Court Judge Jim Cunningham and his clerks, through their diligence and pursuits of smart technology, are leading the way for courts nationwide.
The next city that goes live with Citation Express is the city of Carrollton, Texas.

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