A Year of Administrative Decay Culminates in Upcoming Clallam County Court Shutdown

From April 6 through April 10, 2026, the digital doors to the Clallam County Superior Court will be locked.

The Clallam County Clerk’s Office has announced a total shutdown of electronic filing as it transitions to the Enterprise Justice system. For five business days, the court will revert to a paper-only operation, accepting filings only in person or via mail.

However, this “blackout” is only the latest symptom of a systemic collapse in court administration that began nearly a year ago.

The Death of Self-Service (May 2025)

Internal records show that Clallam County’s ability to provide efficient, self-serve access to court documents ended on May 1, 2025.

At that time, the Clerk’s Office disabled the online self-serve portal because the existing license for the OnBase system had reached its “end of life” and was no longer supported.

Instead of a seamless transition to a new platform, the county regressed. Since May 2025, litigants and the public have been barred from purchasing court records online.

A Waste of Public Resources

The elimination of self-service has transformed the Clerk’s Office into a manual fulfillment center.

Under the current “broken” system, every single request for a court record must be handled individually by a clerk. This includes:

1. Manual Search: A clerk must manually locate the requested file.

2. Payment Processing: Staff must assist with payment and verify receipt.

3. Manual Delivery: The clerk must then manually provide the record to the requester.

This labor-intensive process represents a massive drain on clerk resources at a time when the county is facing a $1.2 million deficit.

Every minute a clerk spends performing tasks that were once automated is a minute lost to addressing the 1,216-case family court backlog.

Enterprise Justice System

The county is now rushing to implement Enterprise Justice and the Odyssey Portal to replace a system that hasn’t been fully functional for eleven months.

While the new system promises a return to digital efficiency, the one-week “blackout” window creates a dangerous blind spot for new filings, including emergency protection orders.

With e-filing dark, victims and attorneys are forced to physically travel to Port Angeles—a barrier to justice that has been compounded by a year of administrative friction.

The Cost of Inefficiency

The transition to Enterprise Justice will eventually introduce new fees for the Odyssey Portal in 2027.

For Clallam County residents, the question is not just what the new system will cost, but what the lack of a system has already cost in wasted clerk hours and delayed access to justice over the last year.