Tyler Technologies has settled a federal lawsuit alleging that North Carolina's $100 million eCourts system led to wrongful arrests and kept people in jail long after they should have been released.
The settlement, confirmed by a U.S. District Court docket entry, ends one track of a class-action case that named both the Texas-based software company and Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden as defendants. McFadden's office serves Ballantyne and the rest of Mecklenburg County. The Assembly first reported the development on Thursday, Sept. 17.
The final settlement agreement must be filed by Friday, Oct. 16, and approved by a judge. No financial terms have been made public.
Claims against McFadden remain pending.
What plaintiffs alleged
The lawsuit, filed in May 2023 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, accused the eCourts platform of producing errors that rippled through the criminal justice system. Some plaintiffs said they were arrested on inactive warrants. Others said they sat in jail for days or weeks after posting bond or meeting the conditions of their release.
Lead plaintiff Timia Chaplin alleged an eCourts glitch caused her to be rearrested in Wake County on charges that had been dismissed nearly a month earlier, according to The Assembly's earlier reporting.
The North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts, or NCAOC, rolled out eCourts in Wake, Harnett, Lee and Johnston counties in early 2023. In March 2023, system problems forced Harnett County to close many district courtrooms for a week. The N.C. Conference of District Attorneys asked the NCAOC to halt the expansion in April 2024, but the system was rolled out across all 100 counties.
Where the case stands
Nine plaintiffs remain in the suit, down from 13 at filing. Several original defendants, including the NCAOC, have been voluntarily dismissed. Tyler Technologies and McFadden are the only remaining defendants.
A judge has not yet decided whether to certify the case as a class action. If certified, the settlement's reach could extend to thousands of North Carolina residents, according to The Assembly.
Greg Skidmore, an attorney for Tyler Technologies, said in June 2026 that the company believes the plaintiffs' claims "in the litigation have no merit" and that any settlement would include no admission of liability. Plaintiffs' attorney Gagan Gupta declined to comment, and a Tyler representative also declined to comment, The Assembly reported.
A pattern across states
Tyler Technologies' Odyssey case-management software is used by courts in at least 28 states, according to the Yale Law Journal. The company has faced similar complaints in California, Texas, Tennessee and Indiana.
In Shelby County, Tennessee, a federal court approved a $4.9 million class-action settlement covering approximately 3,500 people who were allegedly detained beyond their legal release dates after a November 2016 rollout of Tyler's software.
The Oct. 16 filing deadline will determine whether the North Carolina settlement moves forward. The Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office has not publicly commented on the case.
