Digital Signatures at Kane County Gain the Judges’ Acceptance

Using digital signatures, judges at Kane County are issuing court orders faster than ever.

San Francisco, California, September 14, 2011

ARX (Algorithmic Research), the leading provider of digital signature solutions, has implemented the CoSign® digital signature solution at the Kane County Circuit Clerk’s Office. Judges of the 16th Judicial Circuit, Kane County, Illinois, use the solution as part of the Circuit Clerk’s in-house developed courtroom operations application to electronically draft and issue court orders.

Prior to adopting digital signatures, the court system at Kane County involved a paper-intensive and time-consuming approval process. Documents were being completed by hand on pre-printed NCR forms, physically handed to the judge in order to obtain signatures, and finally scanned into the system and stored. With digital signatures, the court is able to maintain documents in electronic format through the entire process.

“The need for digital signatures arose when we expanded the types of electronic processes that take place in the courtroom. We also saw that signing digitally would be faster and more secure than handwriting with an electronic signature pad,” said Monica Lawrence, CIO. She went on to explain that the County considered a number of different options before settling on CoSign. “ARX CoSign excels above the competition because of the level of hardware security combined with the available APIs,” Josh Orr, Solutions Architect, said.

The County uses CoSign digital signatures integrated via web services to its flexible application for electronic court orders. With CoSign, judges have the ability to batch-sign non-critical orders, such as simple continuances, rather than needing to manually sign them one-by-one. CoSign digital signatures provide flexibility of implementation so that complicated orders are reviewed and edited individually prior to digitally signing. In terms of gained efficiencies, Lawrence noted that “CoSign takes a multi-hour routine process and turns it into about 10 minutes.” In addition to court orders, Court System members are using CoSign to digitally sign summonses, orders of expungement, warrants, and subpoenas. While most users at the Court System sign via web services, the Circuit Clerk’s Office also has a client-side signer and expects to add a number of additional users in the near future. “We plan to use the appliance as a certificate overlay applying an office-wide type of certification to certain types of documents,” said Orr.

“It’s very exciting to see the types of efficiencies that can be gained in all areas of Judicial System governance by the use of CoSign,” said Mauricio Pinto, Local Government Market Manager, ARX. “Especially in areas like this where paper-based processes incur considerable added expenses and delays, going paperless with signature approvals can make a very powerful impact.”

About Kane County Circuit Court

Kane County has a population of 525,000 and is the 5th largest county. Illinois is a unified court system, with the Circuit Court being the trial level, handling all court cases types from traffic to felony and all civil and family matters.
For more information please visit http://www.cic.co.kane.il.us/.

About CoSign Digital Signatures

ARX (Algorithmic Research) is a global provider of cost-efficient digital signature solutions for industries such as AEC, life sciences, healthcare, government, energy, and manufacturing. ARX CoSign® is the market leading digital signature solution. CoSign digital signatures fully automate signature-dependent processes affordably and compliantly, allowing organizations to go paperless and save time and money. Compatible with major document types including Word, Excel®, PDF, PDF/A, and IBM Forms, CoSign signatures are globally verifiable without requiring proprietary validation software. CoSign is also centrally managed by your organization for reliable control over signature privileges. Learn more about the CoSign digital signature solution.