Hamilton County Juvenile Court Clerk Gary Behler talks amid shelves of case files at the Hamilton County Juvenile Court child support division on Thursday. Behler has worked to modernize the office, including digitizing court files, since taking over three years ago.Paper shoved in files, bulging from shelves, holding decades worth of court case information. Files upon files filling rooms, floor-to-ceiling, in two Hamilton County buildings. Clerks, pushing carts, filled with files, to the juvenile courtroom to be opened, read and sent back to the shelves, a little thicker.
At Hamilton County Juvenile Court, clerks are “drowning in paper.”
But box by box, that’s changing.
Gary Behler, the Hamilton County Juvenile Court clerk, said a massive document scanning project began Aug. 5 that will digitize more than 25,000 records between Juvenile Court and the child support division.
If stacked atop each other, the boxes of files would stand 38 stories, nearly twice as high as Chattanooga’s tallest structure — the 21-story Republic Center building at Seventh and Chestnut streets. If the files were placed on a scale, it would take three elephants at 4 tons each to balance the load.