Mike Moi uses the court case management system known as Blackstone in the Clark County District Court clerk's office at the Regional Justice Center. The antiquated system soon will be replaced with a more efficient one that will provide citizens with greater access to cases and filings. Photo by Isaac Brekken/Review-Journal.

Deep in the basement of the Regional Justice Center lies a relic of the past: a large computer developed in the 1980s that runs the Clark County courts case management system.

"We're not feeding it index cards like the old days, but we might as well be," court spokesman Michael Sommermeyer said.

The old and often fussy system, which is incapable of dealing with a growing influx of users, is being replaced with a large network of servers that will help create a more efficient judicial system, starting Monday.

Today, traffic court, the first to switch to the new system, will be closed so that court staff can install new equipment and have the system up and running next week.

On Monday, traffic violators should be able to pay their fines online, an extension of the phone system that now allows residents to pay by credit card on the phone, Sommermeyer said.

The goal of the new system, called Odyssey, is to create a "virtual courthouse," said Tim Davis, assistant court administrator for Las Vegas Justice Court.

State-of-the-art hardware will ensure a more stable Web site, capable of handling the system's growing number of users. "So basically there is no point of failure throughout the system," Davis said.

The current court case management system, known as Blackstone, provides the public access to court calenders and information on civil and criminal cases.

Blackstone has drawn two major complaints within legal circles: the system doesn't provide access to case filings, such as complaints, outside the courthouse, and it can be slow when overused or even can go comatose. You plug in a case number and click, and then the screen freezes.

"When it's in the clerk's office here, it's Intranet, so you can get on from here. But if you have a computer in your office or home or Starbucks or whatever, you can't get on," said Mike Moi, 41, owner of Integrity Records Access of Las Vegas, which researches public records nationwide.

Moi, who uses Blackstone on one of the public computers in the clerk's office daily, said the search properties are not nearly as up to date as those in other states.

"At three o'clock in the morning you will always get your searches done correctly, and five o'clock in the morning pretty much the same thing. But anywhere between seven and seven, pretty much you've got people using it and the servers are designating all their available resources to people in this building -- rightfully so. But don't tell us we have access and we don't," Moi said.

Moi said he is awaiting the new system eagerly.

Davis said he hopes that in early 2007, Family Court also will be online on Odyssey. Probate, civil and criminal courts will follow.

Davis said he hopes the public will be able to file documents with the court from their homes or offices online and have virtual access to cases and filings.

That should speed up the entire court system, including Justice Court.

Chief Judge James Bixler said he hopes the new system will prevent major backlogs such as the current one during which Justice Court staff members are days behind with about 16,000 documents waiting to be processed.

The new system also will give Web users better access to documents in Justice Court, which now has a separate Web site from District Court for its calendar. The same site will allow users to see a party's activities in Justice and District courts.