This episode of the Tyler Tech Podcast features Judge Vanessa Heinold and Municipal Court Administrator Tiffany Totah from the city of Victoria, Texas, discussing how their municipal court expanded access to justice by rethinking traditional court delivery models. They share how Victoria addressed barriers like missed appearances, warrants, and limited accessibility through community-centered approaches such as evening and outreach dockets held in familiar locations. The conversation also highlights the technology and operational changes that enabled single-interaction case resolution, building trust, improving compliance, and earning the city a Tyler Excellence Award.
In this Tyler Tech Podcast episode, Judge Vanessa Heinold and Municipal Court Administrator Tiffany Totah of the city of Victoria, Texas, share how their municipal court expanded community access to the courts by rethinking how and where court services are delivered. Recorded live at Tyler Connect 2026 in Las Vegas, the conversation highlights Victoria’s Tyler Excellence Award-winning approach to improving access, compliance, and trust.
Like many courts, Victoria faced challenges with missed appearances, unresolved cases, and warrants that created real‑world barriers for residents — from lost wages and transportation issues to perceived barriers like unfamiliar or intimidating court settings and limited digital access. Traditional court hours and settings made it difficult for people to engage with the system, even when they wanted to resolve their cases.
Judge Heinold and Tiffany Totah explain how the court addressed these issues by asking a simple but powerful question: What are the barriers to coming to court? Their answer led to flexible, community‑centered solutions such as evening dockets, open dockets, and outreach court sessions held in familiar locations like libraries and food kitchens — meeting people where they are and creating more approachable paths to resolution.
The episode also explores the technology and operational foundations that made this model possible, enabling residents to resolve cases in a single interaction without returning to court for paperwork or payments. Together, they reflect on the results — thousands of cases resolved, warrants recalled, stronger community partnerships, and a cultural shift toward empathy and problem‑solving — offering practical insights for courts looking to expand access to justice through more flexible, community‑focused service delivery.
This episode also highlights the 2026 State CIO Priorities Playbook, designed to help government leaders turn strategy into action. The playbook provides practical insights, real-world examples, and actionable guidance across top priorities like AI, cybersecurity, modernization, accessibility, and digital services.
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Vanessa Heinold: I think every court should be asking what are the barriers to coming to court? And that’s really where we started was asking that seminal question.
Josh Henderson: From Tyler Technologies, this is the Tyler Tech Podcast. I’m your host, Josh Henderson. Today’s episode looks at how courts can expand access to justice by rethinking not just technology, but where and how services are delivered.
Recorded live at Tyler Connect 2026 in Las Vegas, I’m joined by Judge Vanessa Heinold and Municipal Court Administrator Tiffany Totah from the city of Victoria, Texas, whose team was recognized this year with a Tyler Excellence Award. Facing high rates of missed appearances and unresolved cases, Victoria’s municipal court took a different approach. One focused on removing barriers, meeting people where they are, and creating more flexible ways to resolve cases.
From evening dockets to community-based outreach sessions in places like libraries and food kitchens, they’ve built a model that brings court services directly into the community. Judge Heinold and Tiffany share how they turned that vision into reality, combining the right technology with strong partnerships, thoughtful planning, and a deeply human approach to service.
We’ll also explore the measurable impact from increased compliance to thousands of cases resolved and what other courts can learn from their experience. Let’s dive right in.
Well, Judge Heinold, Tiffany, welcome to the podcast. It’s so great to have you both here, and congratulations to you both on a much-deserved Tyler Excellence Award win.
Vanessa Heinold: Thank you. We are so happy to be here, and we are so thankful that you guys thought that our project was so remarkable and that we can share this information for others. I’m so thrilled that we get that opportunity.
Josh Henderson: We’re so glad to have you here. So, to start, let’s go back to the original challenge. What were you seeing in terms of missed appearances and unresolved cases, and what made this a priority to address?
Vanessa Heinold: So, I think for us, yes, we were seeing missed appearances. And, you know, there are many reasons why people don’t come to court, and those are important to address. I think every court should be asking, what are the barriers to coming to court? And that’s really where we started, was asking that seminal question.
And when we sat down, we found and really thought about these issues. We found that there are things that were barriers that we weren’t really considering. Like, for example, not everyone gets paid time off.
And so, if you need to take time off to attend court, you actually lose your wages for when you are in court. And then you automatically think that when you come to court, you’re going to just have to pay a bunch of money. And maybe you already don’t have that money.
So that’s a big, I mean, I would say that’s a big barrier. Some that we often think about is like transportation. That is a barrier. Another thing that people don’t often consider is, especially when you’re working in the court system and in courtrooms and you’re used to that setting, intimidation, fear, right?
This idea that when you’re in a tight spot or in a concerning situation, no one’s going to listen to you. No one’s going to help you problem solve. And so, I mean, I think that’s enough of a barrier there to affect a large number of people. And so that’s what we’ve, upon realizing that we kind of sat back and said, the next question after that is, how do we address those barriers?
How do we break down the walls so that we can get a comfort level for folks to come to our court?
Tiffany Totah: One other thing that I noticed a lot too when we started expanding our options was the digital divide. We were offering quite a few virtual hearings, and we were having some challenges with folks being able to connect to those hearings. And so, expanding our options and allowing in-person through outreach efforts, meeting people where they are.
And so that really certainly was a challenge as well.
Josh Henderson: I wanted to dive into that a little bit more, this idea of rethinking how and where court happens. Right? So how did the idea of open dockets, evening sessions, and outreach dockets, how did that all come together for you all?
Vanessa Heinold: For us, I mean, that was again kind of addressing this barrier aspect. Like, the idea is like, if you’re intimidated, if you’re fearful of coming to court and unsure, uncomfortable, you’re in an uncomfortable chair, it’s cold, it’s large, you’re in front of people, how many people have a fear of talking in front of folks?
And so, in court, you’re doing that. So, all of those things. And we’re like, how could we address that?
And what we ultimately came back with was this idea that court doesn’t have to be where we traditionally think court is.
We have the flexibility. Well, and I should say, after the panic attack that Tiffany had when I suggested that we have court outside of our court walls. We sat back and thought, you know, we have a lot of partners in this community that would love to collaborate with us on this, that we would be able to address some of the populations they’re already working with in an environment that they’re already familiar with, and we can just go to them and meet them where they are. And so, then that next step was like reaching out to these great community collaborators is what I call them, but resources in the community, whether it’s, you know, something that we’re all familiar with, like a local public library.
Easy, utilized by lots of folks of all different backgrounds and all different needs. I mean, that’s an automatic, right? But then also going to our local food kitchen. And they serve free meals.
Every lunch is that there is a free meal. There are lines out the door. Guess what? Those folks, by and large, have things that are open in my court.
So why not meet them there where they can get their lunch? It’s a familiar location. They know Ms. Trish who works and serves their lunch. But then they also can come over and say, hey, what are y’all doing here? What’s going on?
And that’s for the people who are familiar with our local food kitchen. But then sometimes it’s folks that aren’t familiar, but they might need that service. They get a word that we have court there. They come meet me there.
Because it’s outside of the courtroom, get somewhere that’s safer, feels safer, feels more familiar. And then they learn that our local food kitchen serves lunches every day, and they’re free. So, man, what a collaboration, right? And in the interim, we get to help people clear out this burdensome baggage, if you will.
Like these unresolved tickets that create barriers to getting driver’s licenses and create barriers to getting IDs for them to be able to get jobs, for them to be able to qualify for other services. And anyway, it’s been remarkable. It also is really rewarding, I think, when some of our community collaborators call us and say, hey, we hear you’re doing this. We would love to host you.
And so, it just has broadened this great this horizon for folks, options for people, and then also being able to be flexible on the times of court. So sometimes our court will last from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sometimes it’s on Saturdays.
Sometimes, you know, that flexibility allows for folks to take advantage when they can.
Josh Henderson: It’s wonderful. And I feel like it’s a very thoughtful and humanistic approach, which we absolutely love to hear here at Tyler. But I do want to get back to the panic attack.
Vanessa Heinold: Panic attack. This is the lady with the plan right here. I have these, like, ideas, and then she goes, how are we going to make this happen?
Josh Henderson: Tell me about bringing that plan to fruition.
Tiffany Totah: So, for one, you have to get everybody on board.
You have to ensure all the staff is trained on how these dockets will work. The technology is a big piece of it, utilizing our municipal justice software to make these cases flow through the system easily.
So, it not so much a panic attack, just more so my brain is like, okay. What are we going to do first? Who do we need to reach out to first? And so, starting with our IT department to make sure we have secure connections to get into our software.
Because we have Content Manager with Tyler Technologies, we’re able to access documents off-site, remotely, wherever we need to be. And so those things certainly came into play when trying to figure out how we’re going to make this work effectively and efficiently.
Vanessa Heinold: We wanted to make it so that when we met with someone at a different location, we could handle those cases just like we would in our regular courtroom.
So, we didn’t want people to have to come back to court to sign things. We didn’t want people to come back to court to pay things or turn in things or print things or any of that. We wanted a full stop, like, no, this is just as effective and efficient as it would be in our courtroom setting.
Josh Henderson: It’s a wonderful approach. I want to talk a bit about any sort of feedback that you’ve received since implementing this approach. But when you’re meeting people where they are in places that they feel comfortable, tell me about the feedback that you receive in in those cases. Or is it just a matter of, like, they feel that comfort level, so they’re not necessarily giving you that amount of feedback?
Vanessa Heinold: We get a lot of feedback. I mean, I would say I would hazard a guess I mean, I think our outreach dockets, that’s what we call them. Our outreach dockets are probably the most favored dockets among staff for sure.
Because people get to sit across the table from us and we get to make you know, it’s eye to eye discussing their cases and they feel heard and listened to. So, it’s not only like a physical response of like, oh my goodness, there are other options besides paying these tickets or going to jail. And so, there’s a physical relaxing of like, okay, this is all right.
But then there’s also many times tears. Because financial burdens, like lots of tickets that are unresolved, weigh on us. Research shows it, we know it, financial responsibilities and obligations, it can be stressful. And so, when they find that someone is willing to like to sit and work through this, I mean, there are many times tears.
There’s also testimonial. People will say, so for example, one of the most popular dockets we have are our evening dockets from five to seven.
You want to take a guess on who utilizes those dockets the most?
Josh Henderson: I have no idea.
Vanessa Heinold: Teachers.
Josh Henderson: Okay.
Vanessa Heinold: You know why? Well, they have to plan to take off.
They have to plan for a sub to cover their classroom.
Truth be told, I would much rather our teachers teach, be in school. That is a critical part of our community. I don’t want them taking off and have a wasted day for our students because they have to come see me.
So, a lot of times it’s like teachers are coming to our staff. It could be janitorial staff or administration or whatever. But they are so thankful that there’s this flexibility that they could come after work. That it’s not money out of their pockets.
And so, it’s not always teachers, but I mean, it’s people who work these like normal jobs that we know, right? These 8-to-5 jobs. But like they don’t have to take time off to be able to come and take care of these citations. That’s huge to me because we also are doing our part in the community of saying, look, let’s prioritize your time.
It’s priority for you to teach our babies to be good humans, good civilians, and teach them the lessons of history and the lessons of biology, all the different things.
Your time is wasted with me in the afternoon. Come see me in the evening.
Josh Henderson: It’s like it sounds like there’s a lot of powerful outcomes with the work that you all are doing done.
Tiffany Totah: Yes. I would say a lot of the feedback we receive at the court is from our community partners. They are excited when we’re coming to them. They’ll call us and ask us when we’re coming back to their particular location and where our next one’s going to be. And so, they’re very grateful to host us and have these available options for their constituents that they serve. And so that to me has been the biggest impact is seeing not just the tears shed, the burdens lifted, but also community partners and that strengthening of the community as a whole to really work together and help people live better lives.
Vanessa Heinold: Well, and it goes along with our mission too of, like, educating the public about what we do.
And about how we treat people with integrity and respect and find solutions. And I couldn’t be more grateful to Tyler, in particular, for allowing us to have the tools we need to see this program through and to see that it is such a success. Tiffany can tell you all the numbers. I mean, thousands and thousands of paces that we have dealt with through this program.
And I couldn’t be more pleased, for sure. Although the most fun is when I have someone and I’m working with them and we’re getting through things and they look around and they’re like, so what is this place? What do they do? And I’m like, you know what?
Great question.
If you need groceries, they have a whole section over here where you can pick up the groceries that you need. Or if you’re needing some clothing, we’ve got a whole closet back there that you can go through. Or if you’re needing these services or that. And they’re like, how do you do that? And I can tell them, actually, when you’re done with me, go right around to the front and talk to my friend Sheila. Sheila will get you directed and let you know exactly what you need to do to be able to serve get these services. That’s so powerful.
Josh Henderson: It’s wonderful.
Vanessa Heinold: That’s so awesome. I get so excited.
Josh Henderson: No. Yeah. Yeah. The enthusiasm is incredible.
Stay tuned. We’ll be right back with more of the Tyler Tech Podcast.
The National Association of State CIOs or NASCIO has released its top ten priorities for 2026, and they’re as relevant as ever.
AI at number one for the first time, cybersecurity is holding strong, and the focus doesn’t stop there. Cloud, modernization, accessibility, data, and more are all top of mind for state CIOs.
Jade Champion: And Tyler has a companion to that list, the State CIO 2026 Priorities Playbook, to help agencies take the next step from strategy to execution.
Josh Henderson: You’ll find real case studies, honest insight into where progress stalls, and practical first steps across all ten priorities.
Jade Champion: It’s free, it’s actionable, and it’s ready for you right now in the show notes.
Josh Henderson: Go download the State CIO 2026 Priorities Playbook and start turning priorities into progress.
Jade Champion: Now let’s get back to the Tyler Tech podcast.
Josh Henderson: Now I wanted to talk a little bit about, like, the pre and post, this approach. So, like, are you seeing in terms of resolved cases as opposed to unresolved cases, are you seeing that that shift? Are you seeing that, you know, that those efficiencies gained? What how can you speak to that? What are the stats on that?
Tiffany Totah: So, I certainly see an improvement in warrant clearance and getting some of our backlogged cases cleared out because of these options. When they come in, they’re able to talk with the judge or talk with the prosecutor, potentially get those fines waived, dismissed. They’re given community service options. So, we are seeing a lot more compliance in that regard.
I know over the past few years, we have cleared out over have seen over 2,000 people and cleared out several cases along the way. And so, we’re certainly seeing the impacts of that. And it has been quite effective and efficient, and it’s truly a way to continue to provide access to justice and make sure that people know that we are here if things fall behind. You know, they know that they can come and talk to the judge to try to get back on their payment plan or get those matters resolved.
And so, we’re certainly seeing the impacts of that in our workload.
Vanessa Heinold: Well, and warrants to me are a big deal. So, people, and again, it goes back to these barriers. If they have a warrant, they certainly are afraid to come and visit with us.
They think they’re going to have to go straight to jail or something. So, again, in these safe places, they’re willing to come and visit with me. But in Texas, the law is that, like, hey, if they make meaningful interaction with the court, we are allowed to recall those warrants.
I love that. So, when they come and see sit across from me, I’m like, thank you for making the effort. You’re coming to see me because now I get to recall all these warrants and that’s impactful.
Because one, that’s just one thing that we can like remove this barrier. We can kind of remove and show in good faith that, hey, we’re going to work through this, we’re going to get through it. But two, it also is a promise to them. Like a warrant is, is and can be quite disruptive in someone’s life, especially when an arrest is made.
Because what happens? An arrest is made.
Maybe jobs. You don’t get to your job on time, or you aren’t able to pick up children from school.
And you know, there can be large impacts, okay, to say the least, when there’s an arrest made on a warrant. So if we can avoid all those things, man, there’s a real trickle-down effect of like keeping these people in the community so that they can continue to kind of work forward, if you will, like work in a positive way to try to get these things resolved and move in a way that there’s, I don’t know, like there’s just a little more freedom in being able to handle these types of cases and know that there’s a way out. There’s a solution.
Josh Henderson: Yeah. No. That’s really great.
Vanessa Heinold: So, we have recalled, I mean, I don’t know, thousands of warrants. And that’s a real, to me, that feels really great. Yeah. You know?
Yeah. I would much rather resolve these cases without an arrest. I don’t want my people going to jail. In fact, I say that all the time to my folks.
Josh Henderson: And now it sounds to me like this is also an approach that takes a village.
Two of you are here. You’re the spokespeople currently, but there there’s a greater staff involved in all of this.
How has this changed the way your team thinks about delivering these services and going about their day-to-day?
Vanessa Heinold: For me, what I have seen in my 10 years with the court is this shift in culture, really. Would you agree with that?
Tiffany Totah: I would certainly agree with that and the way that they approach those that are coming to see us with compassion and understanding and listening to what they have to say or do.
Vanessa Heinold: It’s not just a “you have to do this or else” mentality. It’s a no, our job is to find solutions.
And we have to learn from mistakes that were made in other communities, especially in regard to municipal court fines and tickets and costs. And we have to take those lessons and improve upon the system that we’re providing. And this is our way of doing that and ensuring that the people that come to us are going to be heard. They’re going to be treated with integrity and respect, and we’re going to find solutions. We’re going to figure out a way to get to yes. Figure out a way to get to a better future, a better path.
Josh Henderson: Well, let’s talk about that a little bit more. So, as you look ahead, you know, you’ve got this really solid foundation now. How do you see it evolving further as this builds as the, you know, as things you know, as the population increases? Whatever it may might be, how do you see it evolving?
Tiffany Totah: We just got a brand new courtroom, so I could see it being utilized a lot more for especially for something we have done this in the past. I know judge can speak to this a little bit more, but an all-day docket or we’re there, the judge is in the courtroom from ten to three, and people can come in and out as they wish throughout the entire day, you know, anytime during that time period. They can come during lunch if they want, you know. They can come in the mid-afternoon before they get their kids from school. And so, I know that’s one way I can certainly foresee it, we’re utilizing that new space to really bring people to us.
Vanessa Heinold: Tiffany’s absolutely right on that.
For me, what I see as a growth is I hope that other courts reach out to us.
And I hope that maybe our enthusiasm can influence someone else to say, we could do this too. And I hope they reach out and like, let me visit with them. Let’s problem solve so that we can get this in other communities.
Because, you know, is this doing great work for the people, our constituents, are the people in our community? Absolutely. But it can be scaled up to other communities, other sized courts. It also can be a real integral part of changing the perception of our courts in the eyes of the community. It’s important. The work we do is so important. I remind people that in municipal courts, we see more people than all the other courts combined.
And especially, in our community, I like to remind the district court judges and the county court at law judges that all and Justice of the Peace that all of their courts combined don’t see as many people as I do. And so, the perception can really be shifted if one little court like the municipal court does this kind of work, goes out into the community, and we are visible with the community. And anyway. So, that’s to me what I see is like, let’s get this to other places, not just the city of Victoria. We can do it. I can help.
Josh Henderson: And it’s interesting having both your perspectives on this, and I want to kind of wrap things up with that. And you mentioned kind of you want other courts to kind of reach out, take some of the suggestions you might have for them. But tell me a little bit about the advice you would give to, you know, a municipal court that might be in a similar position that you all were at prior to this approach. What would you say to them? How would you want them to kind of take that first step?
Vanessa Heinold: The first step is to make sure that you have a Tiffany Totah, because she is absolutely incredible, and I will always sing her praises. And she makes me look amazing all the time because I’ll be honest, I couldn’t have done anything.
These ideas would still be on paper if it wasn’t for someone like Tiffany to say, we can do this and let’s figure it out, you know. And she is such a great partner in all of this and I’m so very thankful. So, first step, find a Tiffany.
Josh Henderson: Don’t poach Tiffany.
Tiffany Totah: Don’t poach Tiffany. I’m born and raised Victorian.
I think I’m stuck there for a little bit right now.
Vanessa Heinold: She’s all mine.
No. But I think Tiffany actually spoke to this earlier. It’s just like kind of buy-in from the different stakeholders, right? Like one is your city council.
Like, let’s make sure that they understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it right. Sometimes, like, I know we just got this brand new, beautiful, state of the art courtroom. It’s incredible.
I invite you all to come see that. Awesome. But that being said, I spoke with some of our city council members, and they were like, well, you might just want to hold court, and that’s the new courtroom all the time now. And I was like, well, I mean, yes.
But we will still continue to go into the community because the work is so important.
So anyway, stakeholders. Visiting with your city council, but also the people in your court system. The prosecutors need to be on board. And I know this may sound silly, but make sure your bailiff is okay. I’ve got to bring security with us. And so sometimes bailiffs are like really accustomed to just go into the court and then you’re telling them, no, we’re actually going to go into this area that you probably, on your free, time patrol a lot.
But no, it’s going to be great and we’re going to do, you know, and so yes, getting all the stakeholder’s invested in this process is really important.
Tiffany Totah: For me, it would be all the things that she mentioned. But in addition to that, budgeting: Ensuring that you have the tools and resources you need to make this be a success, whether that’s laptops, whether that’s VPN for connecting remotely into your systems, having a hotspot has been very helpful. And so, you’re not bringing paper and pen, you’re bringing computers, you’re setting up shop, making sure the spaces you go out to have the resources you need.
I like to recommend starting with the local library because oftentimes, those are hosted by the local municipality. So, you may not have as many internet issues there. And so, really, when you’re building those partnerships, checking out the spaces before hosting court there to see if it meets the needs that you need. Does it have tables?
Does it have chairs? Or do you need to bring those with you? And so that has been a big piece of what we do behind the scenes to make things be efficient.
Josh Henderson: Well, I love the thought behind everything that’s happening in Victoria. The enthusiasm is wonderful. Congratulations again on a very, very well-deserved Tyler Excellence Award, and it was so great to talk to you both.
Vanessa Heinold: Thank you so much for your time, Josh. It was great to meet you, and thanks for inviting us on the show.
Tiffany Totah: This is awesome. Thank you for the opportunity. I’m we’re glad to share our story. And people do call me all the time to ask about, just so judge knows, how to make this work, and I have shared many notes, on how to make it work for their system, and they can amend it and adjust it to what meets their needs. And so, we’re very grateful to be here and happy to share our story.
Josh Henderson: As we heard today, expanding access to justice is about more than introducing new tools. For the city of Victoria, Texas, it meant reimagining how court services are delivered, creating flexible options that reduce barriers, meeting people in familiar community spaces, and building trust through more personal one-on-one interactions.
Judge Heinold and Tiffany shared how initiatives like outreach dockets, evening sessions, and mobile court operations have helped resolve thousands of cases, reduce warrants, and create meaningful pathways for people to move forward.
Just as importantly, this approach has strengthened relationships across the community and shifted the culture of the court toward empathy, collaboration, and problem-solving. It’s a powerful example of how thoughtful, community centered innovation supported by the right technology and partnerships can make a lasting difference for both courts and the people they serve.
If you’d like to learn more about the solutions discussed in this episode, check out the show notes for additional resources. And we’d love to hear your feedback. Fill out the listener survey linked in the notes or reach out anytime at podcast@tylertech.com. And be sure to subscribe, rate, and review the show so you never miss an episode.
For Tyler Technologies, I’m Josh Henderson. Thanks for listening to the Tyler Tech Podcast.