'Series of Ineptitudes': Clerk Accused of Causing Court Breakdown

An inexplicable switch of case management systems by Cobb Superior Court Clerk Connie Taylor led to court notices never being delivered, an unprecedented number of no-shows before the bench and several days where no court documents could be electronically filed.

Trouble began when Taylor elected to switch the court’s database from CRIS, which Marietta attorney Justin O’Dell said had been used for about 20 years, to a new system, called ICON — a decision he said came without warning.

“None of the (Cobb County Bar Association), to my knowledge, was notified that she was changing anything … We all just came to work one day and went to go to the clerk’s index and discovered the new system,” O’Dell said.

No notices

Local lawyers weren’t the only ones playing catchup to the change. O’Dell said Taylor failed to notify PeachCourt, the e-filing system the court uses for all its documents, which led to court notices never being delivered.

“If the court generates a notice, they generate it through PeachCourt and it’s supposed to go into the clerk’s system. Nobody told PeachCourt, ‘Hey, you need to send it to this new system,’ … the two systems weren’t talking to each other,” O’Dell said.

PeachCourt did not respond to the MDJ’s request that they confirm what, if any, notice it was given about the switch by Taylor.

Cobb Superior Court Chief Judge Greg Poole told the MDJ that last week, the court came grinding to a halt as a majority of people expected to be seen before the bench never received notice and thus never showed.

“We’ve never had it happen where so many people haven’t showed up,” Poole said.

Expected delays

Poole said though the problem reared its head last week, failure likely began at least two weeks ago. He added that the notice delay comes on the heels of issues with the mail service, and will almost certainly lead to a “log jam” of cases over the next 30 to 60 days.

“It will cause the calendars to be bigger because you count on your monthly calendars, you count on a certain number or certain percentage of those cases to be resolved,” Poole said. “If you’re not able to resolve the case on July 1, when Aug. 1 comes around, you’re going to have all those cases from July 1 and Aug. 1.”

Poole said since all Superior Court judges are aware of the notice issue, bench warrants are not being issued for people who failed to appear in court.

“Since the 11 judges on the Superior Court understand the notice problem, we’re not going to let things happen to these people. We’re just continuing the cases and trusting that the clerk’s office will get out the proper notices for the next calendar,” Poole said.

Inability to e-file

O’Dell said Taylor’s failure to tell PeachCourt about the system switch not only led to issues with court notices, but prevented lawyers from e-filing any documents for several days, causing even more inconvenience and delay.

According to Poole, Taylor told him documents could not be e-filed from 5 p.m. Thursday to “sometime” Monday.

A notice posted to the Cobb Superior Court’s website states that Taylor’s office notified the court e-filing could resume at 9:27 a.m. Tuesday.

An alert on the clerk’s website that was visible through Monday stated that e-filing would be down for “maintenance” on Friday, July 12. As of Tuesday afternoon, no notice was posted by the clerk to confirm that e-filing had resumed.

“You have attorneys all over metro Atlanta who now rely on the ability to electronically file something,” O’Dell said. “... This is the latest in a series of ineptitudes.”

Consistent controversy

Since taking office in 2020, Taylor has been criticized for collecting over $425,000 in passport fees as personal income, is said to have ordered the destruction of records by a whistleblower, and been lambasted by lawyers for failing to fix a backlog of court record filings.

In April, the Georgia Attorney General’s Office began reviewing findings from a probe led by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation into Taylor’s alleged instruction to destroy the records related to her passport fee collection.

Taylor is alleged to have told her then-employee, accounting manager Maya Curry, “We’re just going to Donald Trump this thing,” after her office received an open records request related to her fee collections.

Despite consistent controversy, Taylor sailed to victory in the May 21 primary against three Democratic challengers. The incumbent clerk received 53%, or 23,868 votes, while her closest challenger, Brunessa Drayton, received less than half that — 24%, or 10,927, votes.

In November, Taylor will face off against former Cobb County attorney and Republican Deborah Dance, who ran unopposed in her primary and earned 28,875 votes.

Taylor did not respond to requests for comment.