The Sharp County Clerk’s Office has some exciting announcements regarding new services to aid Sharp County residents.
According to Clerk Alisa Black, the first development began earlier this month with the instillation of a new kiosk in the clerks office.
“We have a new Kiosk that came from the state. People can come in now and do like pro se divorce filings, get free legal advice, access court records, apply for legal aid and even communicate with an attorney either on here, or if one isn’t available communicate by e-mail through this kiosk,” Black said.
The kiosk enables residents who need to conduct certain items of business the ability to do so here at home, rather than having to travel outside the county for things such as name changes and other filings.
“If you need to change your name, you can do that through here instead of having to travel to Batesville. It also has resources for domestic violence, criminal law, guardianship, sealing criminal records, a how to section along with videos and other resources,” Black said. “This is really neat because it will help people get their paperwork neat and tidy. There is a cost for printing and filing still, but this will save people a lot of time and is a great resource. We want to get the word out about it. That this is available right here. I am excited about what people can do with this system.”
Black said second new development is the is the nearly $100,000 grant the county received to bring the county’s records system into the 21st Century.
“This was the first grant I’ve ever applied for. It is through the Association of Arkansas Counties. They have an Automation Grant that is done through the Circuit Clerks Fund. What happens is the bigger counties, like Pulaski, Benton.. all those bigger counties have a court automation program as well and they have an over abundance of money so to speak,” Black said. So they’re helping the smaller counties become automated and get us up and running with new technology. It’s county helping county and the whole state of Arkansas is trying to get to where we can take care of people better. We will still have hard copy backups of the records.
Black said this will be a benefit to businesses and property owners when filing documents, saving time and money.
“Our grant is going to used to update all of our systems. We will be able to make more online accessibility as far accessing deeds and other things on the e-recording side of things, right now we e-file because of the court records and that’s e-filing,” Black said. “This system will be e-recording where title companies, banks, mortgage lenders can actually e-record documents; deeds, you name it. The commissioner of state lands can get on there and file. It will make things so much faster and we are really excited about the grant.
Lauren is a an award-winning journalist who decided after 10 years of newspaper experience to venture out. Hallmark Times was born.
