Administrative Office of the Courts asks for $39.6 million to finish statewide court technology system
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Summary
The Administrative Office of the Courts asked the Senate Judiciary Committee for a $39,625,000 nonrecurring appropriation and $2.1 million recurring for 18 permanent positions to complete a centralized statewide court management, e-filing and public data system. The AOC said $75 million was previously appropriated and vendor estimates range widely.
The Administrative Office of the Courts on Feb. 11 asked the Senate Judiciary Committee for additional funds to complete a statewide court technology solution the legislature ordered in 2024.
Executive Director Michelle Long outlined a two-part request: a one-time, nonrecurring appropriation of $39,625,000 to finish implementation and a recurring $2,109,000 to cover 18 permanent positions to manage and support the system going forward. Long said the General Assembly previously appropriated $75,000,000 and the AOC has spent about $2,000,000; that leaves roughly $73,000,000 to apply against implementation costs. Based on vendor proposals, Long said full implementation estimates range from roughly $69 million on the low end to about $199 million on the high end; the AOC is asking for the mid-range supplemental amount to complete the data-management and reporting components.
Long described core features: single-sign-on e-filing for attorneys, a centralized case management and calendar system, document management, electronic payments and a public portal for near-real-time data reporting. She emphasized the design will keep the AOC and courts as the data owners and said the architecture uses an "integration hub" to reduce future vendor lock-in.
Brandon Bowers, AOC chief technology officer, told senators the AOC would own the data and licensing; the deployment model is a cloud-based commercial off-the-shelf product with state licensing and an AOC-managed integration hub. He said auditors and the comptroller would retain oversight and that the requested positions are needed to reduce long-term vendor dependence: "We're going to have to have people on the AOC side of this equation to help implement the system, because that's where you learn and grow with the system," Bowers said.
Committee members pressed on ownership, recurring vendor fees, rollout staging across 95 counties and the AOC's outreach to court clerks. Long said the rollout will be incremental and noted early adopters will likely be courts already on the TENSUS platform. The committee approved the AOC budget proposal and sent it to the finance committee by roll-call vote.
Why it matters: A unified case-management and e-filing system would change how attorneys, judges and the public interact with the judiciary across Tennessee and create a single source of case-level data for policy and reporting.
What happens next: The AOC request moves to the finance committee; if approved, the AOC will begin vendor contracting and phased rollouts with vendor configuration and ongoing state-managed support.
