Going head to head -- or key stroke to key stroke -- with other court Web sites, Shawnee County District Court faced some major-league, much larger opposition, including some West Coast giants.

Shawnee County District Court's Web site, www.shawneecourt.org, pulled down sixth place in a contest comparing the designs of 250 judicial Web sites, including sites from Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento.

"I was really surprised that we did that well," said Sally S. Henry, director of court information systems in Shawnee County District Court. The court plans to do more with shawneecourt.org, which is "still in its infancy," Henry said.

Chief Judge Terry Bullock is proud of the award.

"Shawnee County is on the very cutting edge of court technology and automation," Bullock said. "This award gives appropriate recognition to the wonderful information systems staff that have helped build our system for the modern age."

Henry learned of the county's showing in the competition from an e-mail message, and the plaque will be presented formally Wednesday during the weekly meeting of Shawnee County district judges.

First through fifth places were awarded to: Hamilton County, Ohio, Clerk of the Courts, which includes Cincinnati; the North Dakota Supreme Court; the Los Angeles Municipal Court; the San Diego Superior Court; and the Sacramento Superior Court.

The three contest criteria were:

• "court functionality," meaning features allowing Web site visitors to have direct access to essential court information, documents and processes;
• "Web functionality," which means the site is accessible to visitors with different levels of World Wide Web familiarity to a judicial Web site;
• and "extras," features not included in the other two criteria but that somehow enhance the site.

The site has a brief home page: an overview of the district court; its rules, including rules of behavior in court for the public and attorneys; and court forms.

Since the site went online, 20.632 limited-actions cases have been filed through it, Henry said. So far this year, 6,437 limited-actions cases have been filed through the site.

In the future, garnishments, usually a court order instructing an employer to pay wages earned by an employee to the defendant's debtor in a limited-actions case, will be done through the Web site, Henry said.

And by January, domestic cases, which primarily are divorces and related child-custody and support issues, will be filed on shawneecourt.org, Henry said.

Shawnee County has applied for a grant from the Kansas Supreme Court to develop Web site filing of criminal cases, Henry said. That will require electronic links to the district court from the district attorney's office and Kansas attorney general's office. The court will learn in October whether it will receive the grant.