When an ambitious overhaul of state court computers was begun in 2002, Judiciary officials said it would cost less than $12 million and take seven years to complete.

Since then, the project, called JIMS or Judiciary Information Management System, has been plagued with problems that will likely derail both projections.

Last week, the Judiciary sent the prime contractor on the computer project, ACS Government Systems Inc., a three-page notice of default, claiming that the company has failed to provide a workable traffic court computer — just the first "module" of a much larger overall system.

The traffic module was supposed to cost $5.19 million, but there have been $1.15 million in additional expenses to date and the system doesn't work as advertised, according to courts personnel.

In February of this year, state Sen. Clayton Hee, then-chairman of the Judiciary and Labor Committee, called the traffic module of the new computer system "irrevocably broken," a description that was disputed by Judiciary official Walter Ozawa.

Ozawa told legislators at the time that hardware and software were still being fine-tuned and that fixes were under way.

At about the same time Ozawa said that, the Judiciary and ACS had begun six months of discussions about more than three dozen features of the traffic court computer system that the state claimed had not been provided or weren't functioning properly, according to the default letter sent Nov. 9.

Those attempts to reach "mutual accommodation" didn't work out, Judiciary Administrative Director Thomas Keller said in the letter.

"The only accommodation that could be reached would have required the Judiciary to abandon many of the required functions and to incur significant additional expenses for the few modifications that ACS was willing to make," Keller said in the letter.

ACS marketing and communications director Andy Wilson said last week that the company "vigorously denies the state's claims."

'A BLACK HOLE'

ACS Government Systems is a subsidiary of Affiliated Computer Services Inc., a Dallas-based technology firm that does business around the country and internationally.

"ACS has fulfilled its contract to implement the state's traffic courts record-keeping system," Wilson said in a written statement. "We're continuing to work closely with the state to implement changes requested by the state and have demonstrated great flexibility to accommodate our client's changing requirements."

Hee, D-23rd (Kane'ohe, Kahuku), called JIMS "a black hole for the taxpayers and a black eye for the Judiciary."

"I just wonder what's going to happen now — how long it will take to fix and how much it will cost," Hee said.

Under the terms of the contract, ACS has 30 days from the Nov. 9 letter to fix the defaults the state is claiming. If that doesn't happen, the Judiciary can cancel the contract, and then the two sides would have six months to try to agree on the value of the work already performed.

If they can't agree, the next step would be litigation.

When it released the default letter, the Judiciary said that "ACS is involved in litigation in Tennessee over the same case management software" that the company has installed in JIMS.

In that case, the city of Nashville sued ACS in January of this year, claiming that the new case management system for Nashville's Traffic Violations Bureau was seriously deficient.

Nashville said it paid ACS $917,000 for its system, compared with Hawai'i's $6 million traffic module.

ACS has denied the allegations in the Tennessee suit and is, in the words of company spokesman Wilson, "aggressively defending itself" in court.

TENNESSEE PARALLELS

Among the claims in the Tennessee suit are several that mirror allegations against ACS in Hawai'i.

Keller said in his letter that ACS had proposed that JIMS upgrade to a new version of the company's software called Contexte Version 5.0.

Nashville said the company made the same proposal there but it was rejected by that city, according to the suit.

ACS personnel "acknowledged that Contexte 5.0 was only in use since November 2005, in one jurisdiction, so it had no track record, and that the new software was still under development and untested," the lawsuit said.

Keller said in his letter that it would take "at least 18 months to complete this migration" to the new software.

"We cannot wait another year for the deficiencies to be corrected," he wrote.

"In order to cure the default, ACS must provide another solution that will be completed within 30 days," Keller wrote.

OTHER WORK GOES ON

The state has agreed to allow ACS to continue work on the second module of JIMS, a new statewide computer for the jury system.

"The jury module uses different software, is in its first phase of implementation, and is not included in the notice of default and potential termination at this time," the state said.

The next module, a new case management system for criminal courts statewide, has not begun, although the state has already paid $697,824 for it. "The Judiciary will demand a full refund of the $697,824 that was paid before it became apparent that software deficiencies precluded work on that module," the state said.

No money has been paid toward other ACS modules of JIMS, which would serve civil, family, tax and land courts.

"If the contract is terminated, the Judiciary will seek other ways to complete the JIMS project," a court press release said.

"Options include modifying the current software, if possible, or seeking proposals for replacement software," the state said.

Reach Jim Dooley at jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com.