Atlanta Municipal Court Building. Photo by Zachary D. Porter/Daily Report.

More than a year after a massive cyberattack shut down the city of Atlanta computers and caused chaos at the Municipal Court, a new report by a Court Improvement Task Force says the court has rebounded with a streamlined website and is promising a more user-friendly experience for attendees and their lawyers.

But one of the most noticeable changes is also one of the most basic: People are answering the phones.

“One of the biggest issues we discovered was the correlation between court-users' experiences and the perception of our service as a whole,” Chief Judge Christopher Portis said.

“Getting real-time information is so important,” he said. “One of the biggest-ticket impacts is customer service: simply getting the phones answered.”

With a volume that sometimes topped 20,000 calls a month, the court's old system—four employees routing calls to assorted departments—often left callers on hold indefinitely, until they hung up in frustration or were disconnected.

A merger with the city's ATL311 information system last year helped bring that problem under control, Portis said, while solutions to other issues are still under review.   

The 18-member Municipal Court Improvement Task Force was appointed last year by Portis and Deputy Chief Judge Christopher Ward, and co-chaired by attorneys George O. Lawson and Steven Weiner. It included members of the state and city justice systems, Atlanta city council members as well as other attorneys.

The report released last week lays out the goals and obstacles the court faces as it deals with more than 250,000 citations a year, and offered several recommendations for improving how it goes about its business in the future.

The task force centered on three key areas, including the court experience and how it interacts with the public; court outreach to ensure that resources are made available to offenders and their families to deter recidivism; and fixes to court procedures themselves to more efficiently  move cases through the system.

One issue that's going to take more time depends on the outcome of Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms' initiative to close and repurpose the Atlanta Detention Center.

Atlanta Municipal Court Chief Judge Christopher Portis (Courtesy photo)

Portis, who is among those just named to another task force exploring the uses for that property, said the closure shouldn't be a major problem for the court.

The jail population usually fluctuates between 70 and 100 inmates, according to a city Corrections Department spokeswoman.

Most of those defendants are jailed on charges involving drinking or drug offenses, drunk and disorderly conduct, or other relatively minor offenses.

“In any given calendar year, around 6% or 7% of our court cases are jail-related,” Portis said. “As far as day-to-day impact on the court, there shouldn't be a major correlation.”

Bottoms has ordered that Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees no longer be held at the jail, and she signed legislation last year largely eliminating cash bonds for most offenses.

Portis said the latter move, combined with a focus on steering offenders toward accountability courts, rehabilitation and homeless services, should help relieve any strains.  

“I am looking forward to the exchange of ideas coming from the [jail] task force,” he said.

“We're optimistic about addressing the critical issue of individuals who come into contact with the criminal justice system because they have quality-of-life issues,” Portis said. “We're going to come up with something very creative.”

Portis said the court has already moved toward steering defendants away from incarceration.

“We took the first major step in February, when we partnered with the Fulton County State Court to take DUI cases directly from Municipal Court to the county's DUI accountability court,” he said.

“That was a biggie for us, because we often see people who want and need treatment, and often it takes so long to get it, they've reoffended again. So now we can start and finalize it right here, and get down from two or three years to a few months.”

Atlanta's homeless, conservatively estimated at more than 3,000 individuals, make up a large share of the court's defendants, where in addition to substance and alcohol arrests they often face public urination, panhandling and nuisance charges.

The report recommends the creation of a Homeless Court, which would be established in conjunction with the American Bar Association's Commission on Homelessness and Poverty.

The voluntary court would combine a “progressive plea bargain system with an alternative sentencing structure,” and offer life skills training, substance abuse counseling and employment assistance, among other options, the report said.

“That's the remaining work in progress because it necessarily requires partnerships with agencies outside the traditional court processes,” Portis said.

“You kind of have three or four general issues that come up: mental health and substance abuse, of course; another is identifying temporary or permanent housing opportunities,” he said. “Then there's a subpopulation of veterans who need to be reconnected with veterans' services.

“We need a bank of partners to help us funnel these individuals through the court to agencies, so the court serves as a hand-holding body so they stay on track. If they fall by the wayside and end up reoffending, we want to break the cycle,” he added.

Another area the report deemed problematic is the court's high volume of no-shows, which for some criminal and traffic offenses can mean an automatic failure-to-appear warrant is issued.

The court has responded by offering expanded means to resolve outstanding cases, including offering a daily FTA docket and walk-in court.

“We have a rather robust operation that allows people to clear their FTAs all day, any day,” Portis said. “If they want a  court date they can walk in and get one to see a judge. If it's a case where the fine was payable online, you can pay the FTA, and pay the fine at the window in one fell swoop.”

Some of the report's other recommendations are simpler: streamline court forms and documents so they can be easily downloaded and filled out by pro se litigants; appoint a constituent service manager to design and implement court staff training; and have courtroom officers deliver a uniform script at the beginning of each session to explain court procedures.

Of changes that have been made and the challenges ahead, Portis said he is particularly gratified at the absence of complaints from one particular source.

“On the heels of the cyberattack, the Mayor's Office of Constituent Services was a hotbed of complaints about the court,” he said. “Since August, there have been none.”