Civil Division

(Civil Division is responsible for the processing of civil court cases up to $3,000.00 heard through the Gary City Court.)

Court work
All court work is now computerized that allows information to be retrieved and provided to the public in a shorter period of time. In the past, court work was not computerized.

New Cases
New cases are now collected by the civil bookkeepers in which they are counted for accuracy and a receipt is provided to each attorney. In the past, no designated individual was assigned to collect new cases and no receipts were provided to attorneys.

Eviction Court
The Civil Division offers attorneys the ability to file eviction cases with the assigned presence of the court clerk. In the past, eviction cases were not filed in the Civil Division.

Bench Warrant Recalls
When bench warrant recalls are received from the attorney, the information is immediately placed within our database in order to prevent false arrests. In the past, bench warrant recalls were only typed on dockets whenever the court work was completed.

Information Requests
All information is to be requested through an Inormation Request form which allows requests to be handled more appropriately. In the past, no forms were used.

Bookkeeping
All daily work and new cases are computerized and printed out daily for placement in the permanent cash book, which alleviates human error and expedites the process of calculating daily activity. In the past, daily work and new cases were only handwritten into the permanent cash book.

City and state monthly reports for new cases are submitted in accordance with consistent internal deadlines. In the past, reports were submitted at such irregular times each month, the State Board of Accounts rendered audit findings against the office.

A mail book was established to record all daily checks received by mail for accountability and a receipt is provided accordingly from the mail receipt book. In the past, there was no procedure that provided for such tracking of payments.

All Attorney Trust Fund Registers are now computerized to alleviate miscalculations and provide a check and balance. In the past, Attorney Trust Fund Registers were typed on carbon sheets and calculated manually by one bookkeeper.

The bookkeepers immediately inform all attorneys of payments received through our office. In the past, attorneys would only be informed of payments received through their end-of-the month registers which too often allowed for unnecessary bench warrants to be issued.

Common Council
All incoming pending ordinances and resolutions from various departments to be filed are logged which allows for tracking from the onset to the conclusion. In the past, no such tracking was done.

The tax abatement process has been better defined from the point of council approval to submittal to the Clerk and final retrieval by the petitioner for recording through the Lake County Recorder. In the past, the lack of a consistently used standard office procedure allowed petitioners to become confused regarding the filing process.

The administrative process of a Vacation of Public Way ordinance provides that the Clerk’s office is responsible for collecting the fees and subsequently providing an ordinance number and final processing through the Lake County Auditor’s and Recorder’s offices. In the past, final processing was never consistently completed by the Clerk’s office.

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