Wayne County probate court outlines digital overhaul, staffing strain and expansion of behavioral-health program

April Maycock, probate register and IT director for the Wayne County Probate Court, told the Wayne County Commission Committee on Ways and Means on Sept. 24, 2025, that the court has completed a large-scale digitization of case files for recent years, expanded its Behavioral Health Unit’s assisted outpatient treatment program and is confronting persistent staffing and self-representation challenges.

The updates matter because the probate court handles guardianships, conservatorships, estate matters and other cases that often involve vulnerable residents and contested, time-sensitive proceedings. Maycock said the court’s technology and service changes are intended to improve public access and reduce procedural hurdles.

Maycock described several components of the court’s modernization effort. The court finished a project to digitize paper files and made public-file access available online for documents filed after April 1, 2022, citing privacy protections tied to PII legislation passed that date. “We finished the complete digitization of all paper files in Wayne County probate court,” Maycock said, and noted that documents with protected personal information remain restricted from public display and must be viewed on-site and redacted as needed. She added that the court has added step-by-step YouTube videos and a website chatbot, “Ask Wayne,” to help…