Have you been following the latest and greatest news related to the transition of the NC Court records from paper to digital? Don’t worry, we have been monitoring this transition, communicating with our carriers and have a plan in place to help make this transition as easy as possible for our customers!
The transition of North Carolina court records from the present 1980s multiple case management/index systems, including VCAP, to the more up-to-date vendor-provided and hosted Odyssey Integrated Case Management System (Odyssey or ICMS), officially began February 2, 2023 in 4 pilot counties – Wake, Johnston, Harnett and Lee (Track 1). Odyssey is projected to go live in these counties on February 13th. Mecklenburg County (Track 2) is up next with a projected go live date 60-90 days after the pilot counties’ go live date. The remaining counties are expected to transition in groups and will go live every 60-90 days, thereafter. Though, the timing and scheduling of the remaining tracks has not been determined, the roll out to all 100 NC counties is expected to take two to three years to complete.
As each county transitions, the clerk’s records for that county (judgments, liens, lis pendens, special proceedings) will be unavailable or limited. The VCAP system will be in “inquiry mode” only and no new filings will be added to the legacy system. The courts will accept paper filings during this time. After Odyssey goes live, paper filings will be added to the new case management system.
For closings occurring during the transition period or immediately thereafter, there will be a gap. Barristers Title Services will insure the gap without exception upon receipt of evidence satisfactory to the Company that the commitment requirement specifically addressing this gap period is satisfied. Please refer to the Company issued title commitment for the affected counties for the requirement language. In part, the Company will require the NCLTA developed and approved affidavit and indemnity form which you can find HERE. The approved affidavit and indemnity form is only intended to allow for closings that must take place during the county’s transition period. It should not take the place of a standard search of the clerk’s records, which must be completed when the attorney has full access to the indexes of judgments, etc. In addition, attorneys should update the search of the VCAP system through the last day the system is available in the affected county going through the system migration.
For comprehensive information about eCourts, Odyssey, Portal, eFiling and training materials, please visit the North Carolina Judicial Branch’s website at: https://www.nccourts.gov/ecourts#odyssey-9369, then click on “I am a Member of the Bar.”
Please feel free to reach out to Natasha Branch at (natasha.branch@fnf.com or natasha.branch@barristerstitle.com) with questions/comments.
Currently we are offering 7 total on-demand CLE/CPE’s – 5 of them newly uploaded! Click HERE to access the CLE library. This is where all of the on-demand courses will be stored, so bookmark the link and check back periodically. We will also announce any new live or on-demand courses, here, in the monthly newsletter.
March Madness is around the corner so get ready to switch from football mode and fill out those Barristers brackets.