The state Judiciary has halted contract payments on its problem-plagued $5.2 million court computerization project, saying the system has never worked as promised.

The Judiciary notified the contractor, ACS Government Systems, earlier this month that it was in default of the contract, which was designed to automate record-keeping in the state's Traffic Courts.

"Unless ACS cures the default within thirty days ... the Judiciary intends to terminate its contract with ACS," wrote Thomas Keller, administrative director of the courts.

The notification cites numerous problems with the software and services for the Judiciary's Information Management System project. It also charges that the company misrepresented the capabilities of the software in order to win the contract with the state.

Keller said the state has tried to work with the contractor to identify and fix the problems, including paying more than $1.1 million in change orders to develop interfaces with other systems and software.

"Although presently in use, the traffic module has not been acceptable to the Judiciary because a number of functional requirements have not been met," the state said in a news release yesterday.

The statement charges that ACS has been "unable or unwilling to correct basic software design defects." Specifically the system "does not provide the full range of functionality necessary to allow the courts to maintain a general ledger" for accounting, the Judiciary charged.

State and company officials met for five months earlier this year but were unable to reach an agreement on how to fix the system. The company proposed waiting until a new version of its software was developed in about 18 months.

"We cannot wait another year for the deficiencies to be corrected," Keller said. "In order to cure the default, ACS must provide another solution that will be completed within 30 days."

The computer problems have also caused delay in serving thousands of outstanding arrest warrants issued by O'ahu traffic courts. In 2006, the problems with the court system also caused the Judiciary to pay more than $1 million in overtime statewide as employees struggled to learn and operate the new system.

The computerization of the Traffic Court records was to have been the first phase of a project to change the way the Judiciary handled all its record-keeping. The second phase of the project, dealing with juries, uses a different software and is not included in the notice of default, officials said.