Goodin Associates

What Goodin Associates does

Goodin Associates, Ltd. (GAL) is a privately held, Illinois-only software company founded in 1986 by Thom Goodin that develops an integrated suite of justice-information management solutions for Illinois state and county government. The company's flagship product is the Judicial Information Management System (JIMS), a case management platform adopted by 80 of 102 Illinois counties since 1986, which handles record-keeping, notice generation, document creation, and the mandatory statistical reporting required by the Administrative Office of Illinois Courts.

The product portfolio is built on a legacy IBM iSeries/AS400 platform with PC-based client applications and is organized around the JIMS hub. Integrated add-on modules address each major office in the Illinois justice system: PC JIMS Courts (finances, statistics, scheduling, indexing), PC JIMS Prosecutor, PC JIMS Probation, PC JIMS Jury, PC JIMS Child Support, JIMAS Imaging (paperless document management), JIMAS ADR (automatic disposition reporting), JIMAS Notice Generation, Collections Tools, Court Call (courtroom management), and a Public Web Access portal (J) launched in 2000 that provides online court data access and E-Pay traffic-ticket processing with automated disposition and case closure.

The business model combines recurring software licensing for the JIMS suite with professional services revenue from telephone hotline support, annual client conferences, and a gated client-wiki; one-time hardware sales (the sales team sizes system hardware to each county's caseload and projected growth); consumables (forms, checks, printer supplies); and subscription/transactional revenue from the public-facing web portal's premium search and E-Pay services. Go-to-market is direct sales to Illinois government agencies only, with no channel partners, no disclosed pricing, and minimal traditional marketing; the company relies on its entrenched reputation within the Illinois justice system. Headquartered in Carbondale, Illinois with remote staff, the firm is currently female-led, bootstrapped with no external institutional investors, and operates exclusively within Illinois' 102 counties.

Name

Goodin Associates

Legal name

Goodin Associates, Ltd.

Website

https://goodinassociates.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1986

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Goodin Associates, Ltd. is a privately held Illinois-only software vendor founded in 1986 that provides an integrated case management suite (JIMS) and add-on modules for Illinois courts, prosecutors, probation, and jury offices, deployed in 80 of 102 Illinois counties.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Carbondale

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Software Licensing: Licensing of integrated justice software packages including JIMS case management, JIMAS Imaging, Probation, Prosecutor, and Jury management modules. Separate license required for some components like PC JIMS Bailiff.
2. Technical Support Services: Telephone hotline support, annual conferences, client-wiki access, installation instructions, PC configuration support, reference guides, release notes.
3. Hardware Sales: Sales team recommends system hardware based on caseload and volume indicators. Projected growth considered.
4. Supplies and Forms: Continuous receipt forms, checks, computer paper, printer supplies and various requested supplies.
5. Public Access Services: E-government services including traffic ticket payments with automated processing, disposition and case closure. Premium subscriptions to enhanced search tools.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Goodin Associates develops and licenses an integrated suite of justice-system software centered on the JIMS (Judicial Information Management System) case management platform for Illinois Circuit Clerks. The platform covers case, financial, scheduling, statistics, and indexing functions, and is extended by add-on modules for prosecutors, probation, jury management, child support, automatic disposition reporting, document imaging, notice generation, collections, courtroom call management, and a public web-access portal with online traffic ticket payment.

Product overview

Goodin Associates provides an integrated suite of software solutions for the Illinois justice system, centered on the JIMS (Judicial Information Management System) platform. The core JIMS case management module serves the Circuit Clerk's office with sub-modules for finances, statistics, scheduling, and indexing. Multiple specialized add-on modules integrate with JIMS: JIMAS Imaging (document management), PC JIMS Prosecutor (prosecutor case management), PC JIMS Probation (probation case management), PC JIMS Child Support (child support tracking), PC JIMS Jury (jury management), JIMAS ADR (automatic disposition reporting), JIMAS Notice Generation (document creation), Collections Tools, and Court Call (courtroom management). Public-facing online services include web access portals and e-pay capabilities. All products are designed specifically for Illinois and integrate with each other to minimize duplicate data entry across the justice system.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• PC JIMS Courts: Case management software for Circuit Clerks' offices, including finances, statistics, scheduling, and indexing modules
• PC JIMS Probation
• PC JIMS Prosecutor
• PC JIMS Jury
• PC JIMS Child Support
• JIMAS IMAGING
• JIMAS Notice Generation
• JIMAS ADR
• Collections

Products and services

• Judicial Information Management System (JIMS) Case Management Core case management software for Illinois Circuit Clerks' offices, covering finances (receipting, accounts receivable, disbursements), statistics reporting to the Administrative Office of Illinois Courts, scheduling of court and non-court appointments, and indexing by case number or litigant name.
• JIMAS Imaging Paperless digital document management solution for compact storage and easy retrieval of scanned images and digital audio/video files, with single-point security linked to the JIMS system.
• PC JIMS Prosecutor Case management software for Illinois State's Attorneys that tracks cases from incident through arrests, charging, and sentencing, with integration to court JIMS data, charge tools, document creation, and victim/witness coordinator interface.
• PC JIMS Probation Probation case management software providing integrated access to Circuit Clerk JIMS data, client search, assessment tools with automatic scoring, event calendars, LSI-R integrations, DNA transmittal data, and AOIC statistical reports.
• PC JIMS Child Support Child support module that extracts party data from JIMS, maintains support order lists, tracks payment history, issues checks, generates IDPA reports, prints address labels, and monitors delinquent payors.
• PC JIMS Jury Jury management software providing random selections for summons groups, jury pools, and voir dire panels, plus biographical/demographic tracking, summons mailers, trial and voir dire information, and jury statistics.
• JIMAS ADR (Automatic Disposition Reporting) Automatic disposition reporting system that identifies reportable dispositions on TR, DT, CF, and CM cases, determines reporting agencies, generates proof lists for data issues, and saves dispositions to tape for the Administrative Office of Illinois Courts.
• JIMAS Notice Generation Document and notice generation engine that combines JIMS data fields with document templates to automatically produce court documents (citations, orders, summons, warrants), probation documents (appointment letters, discharge orders, violation reports), and prosecutor documents (warrants, motions, subpoenas).
• Collections Tools Collections management tools for tracking and managing debt collection within Illinois justice system offices.
• Court Call Courtroom management application that runs the entire court call from the bench or staff seat, with a hearings tab for sorting cases, digital case file access via JIMAS Imaging, bailiff check-in integration, and one-click access to major JIMS functions.
• Public Web Access (J) Public online portal providing court data access, attorney case lists and dockets, traffic ticket payment (E-Pay) with automated disposition and case closure, and premium subscription services for enhanced search tools.
• GAL Online Backup Service Online backup service for secure data protection and disaster recovery for Goodin Associates justice system customers.

Quantifiable outcome

• Adopted by 80 of 102 Illinois counties since 1986
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature10 records

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• ImageSoft: ImageSoft provides document management, e-filing and court workflow solutions for courts and justice agencies, directly competing with Goodin's JIMAS Imaging, Notice Generation and integrated JIMS ecosystem offerings.
• Equivant: Equivant (formerly a part of Thomson Reuters) provides Odyssey-style court and prosecutor case management solutions, making it a direct substitute vendor for the same court and State's Attorney customers that Goodin serves in Illinois.
• Journal Technologies: Journal Technologies provides eCourt and eProbation case management systems used by state and county courts; directly comparable to Goodin's JIMS/PC JIMS Prosecutor/Probation offerings with overlapping target customer (Circuit Clerks, probation offices).
• BIS - The Digital Company: BIS provides digital court recording, transcription and case management software to courts and justice agencies - directly adjacent to Goodin's JIMAS Imaging, Notice Generation and courtroom workflow products.

Broad incumbents

• Granicus: Granicus provides government technology including public records, legislative management and justice solutions; while broader than Goodin's focus, it targets the same county-level government buyers and increasingly competes in court digital services.
• Tyler Technologies: Tyler Technologies' Odyssey court case management suite is the most prominent large-scale court software platform in the US, competing for the same Circuit Court clerk and justice agency RFPs as Goodin, but at national scale and cloud-native architecture.
• CentralSquare Technologies: CentralSquare offers a broad public-sector suite including court and public safety solutions, addressing similar Circuit Clerk and probation buyer personas as Goodin but with enterprise-scale product breadth across multiple government verticals.
• Motorola Solutions (CommandCentral Justice): Motorola Solutions' CommandCentral Justice suite (built on the Spillman and CAPERS legacy) covers court, prosecutor, and public safety workflows, overlapping with Goodin's prosecutor and probation use cases for shared justice agency buyers.
• Thomson Reuters (CLEAR, Legal): Thomson Reuters' CLEAR and legal data products are used by prosecutors and public defenders overlapping with Goodin's PC JIMS Prosecutor customer base; provides broader data and analytics capabilities rather than direct case management competition.

Others

• For The Record (FTR): FTR provides court recording, digital court reporting and courtroom audio capture solutions that complement or compete with adjacent parts of Goodin's JIMAS Imaging and Court Call products targeting the same courthouse customers.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/goodin-associates-ltd

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Goodin Associates