I was excited that we officially launched our new website recently. A lot of work was put into the new website. I want to thank our county auditor, George Kaitsa, and his IT department with working with us, especially Ron Clayton.
The new website is designed to work better with mobile devices and to create a better user experience. Also, we have added a new “Virtual Recourse Center” to provide more information and to provide a better resource for self-represented litigants.
For an example, anyone can go to our website, select the virtual resource center button and then use a drop down menu to select the type of case you want to file. After you select the case type, you can then download all required forms that must be completed to file along with a checklist to make sure you have everything you need to properly file a case.
We did a soft rollout of the website earlier this year. At that time I was working with the Ohio Supreme Court Judicial College in planning a virtual continuing legal education on courts working with self-represented litigants. Our audience consisted of over 160 judges, magistrates and court administrators.
During one part of the training I interviewed a national expert on self-represented litigants asking questions that I and other judges may have about how to improve the experience. Prior to the training, I had asked her to review our new website and give her feedback about it and her thoughts on how to improve the website.
Just before I got on Zoom for the class, I told my court administrator that the expert was doing a critique of the website, and I thought he was going to faint as he asked why I would subject myself to a live assessment of our website. I just told him a phrase I like to say, “What can go wrong?” and logged onto the Zoom training.
Fortunately, nothing did go wrong. The interview went well. I was a little nervous about what the expert was going to say and I hoped I would not look too bad. As I listened to her she provided some good insights and suggested a few small ways to improve the website for a self-represented litigant. But, I am thankful that overall, she had very good things to say about our website.
After the class, we received many positive comments about the review of our website as it gave people who attended the class ideas on how to improve their websites. And, to make their court websites more user friendly for self-represented litigants.
The timing of the presentation and our new website was great. It was helpful to have a self-represented litigant expert make recommendations to the website. We have made the recommended improvements to the website. I hope the new website, along with the improvements, will make the website better for all people, including self-represented litigants.
If you want to view our new website it is located at https://domestic.co.delaware.oh.us.
Randall D. Fuller is judge of the Domestic Relations Division of the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas. Judge Fuller is a lifelong resident of Delaware County.
