News Item
Minnesota Court Payment Call Center Logs One Millionth Phone Call

Posted: Tuesday, December 6, 2011

The Minnesota Court Payment Call Center, which began operation in Oct. 2009, logged its one millionth phone call on Nov. 22, 2011.  Court Payment Center employee Susan Wallace took the call, which was a request for assistance with a credit card payment for a Washington County District Court citation.

The Call Center is the gateway to the IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system, the tool that permits a caller to pay a citation with their credit card, and allows callers to speak with a court representative about their citation. Callers may contact the call center at 651-281-3219 or 1-800-657-3611.

“The creation of the Call Center has enabled us to give people the assistance they need to pay their citation or get questions answered over the phone,” said Sue K. Dosal, State Court Administrator.

The average length for a call handled by a Call Center clerk is 2.5 minutes.  The average wait time for a call is five seconds.  The average number of callers seeking to speak with a Call Center clerk each month is 11,000.

Of the almost 79,000 calls handled by a Call Center clerk in 2011 through September, 50,000 had a question regarding payment options, the amount owed, or how to contest a ticket.

In addition to handling calls, selected Call Center clerks assist with administration of individual payment plans, processing of failure-to-appear payments, and processing of e-citations, which are submitted electronically by law enforcement.

Creation of the Call Center was part of the Judicial Branch’s effort to centralize and streamline the processing of more than one million payable citations filed in Minnesota courts each year. Completion of the first phase of the effort, the conversion of 85 counties to Court Payment Center processing, was completed in 2011.  Planning is underway to convert the Second Judicial District (Ramsey County) and the Fourth Judicial District (Hennepin County) to the Payment Center in 2014.