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| See Riverside eFax article below. |
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State E-filing Status Update
I did a lot of internet surfing this week to discover the status of state court E-filing projects. First, we can report that only one state court system does not have some kind of statewide or local E-filing effort. States with complete or largely complete E-filing systems are: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawai’i, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin, and the US Virgin Islands. And there are significant state portal projects are implemented or underway in the large states with mainly local county court funded systems in Florida, Georgia, and Texas.
Some other highlights:
Alaska started their E-filing project, Lynx in October, 2013. Their project website is at: http://courts.alaska.gov/lynx/
Guam has had court E-filing since 2004. http://www.guamcourts.org/Efiling/efile.html
Iowa has 60 counties implemented, mandatory for all case types. http://www.iowacourts.gov/eFiling/Overview/
Kentucky started their E-filing pilot program in Franklin County last December. http://goo.gl/BamN6S
Massachusetts has completed contract negotiation with Tyler Technologies to integrate their E-filing system with the court’s CMS via the LegalXML ECF 4.01 standard in March, 2014
Minnesota District Courts offering E-filing is posted at: http://www.mncourts.gov/?page=4889
Nebraska has their substantial list of “e-Services” at: http://supremecourt.ne.gov/e-services
New Mexico is using the Tyler hosted E-filing system. https://newmexico.tylerhost.net/
New York is making good progress - https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/HomePage
Oregon lists Benton, Clatsop, Columbia, Crook, Jackson, Jefferson, Linn, Polk, Tillamook, and Yamhill counties as having E-filing - http://courts.oregon.gov/OJD/OnlineServices/OJDeFiling/Pages/index.aspx
Virginia kicked off their VJEFS project in April, 2013 and had implemented it in 10 circuit courts by the end of that year and is scheduled for 11 more in 2014. See: http://www.courts.state.va.us/courtadmin/judpolicies/2013_jcv_report.pdf
Wisconsin has every county accepting small-claims cases via E-filing with others being added. http://www.wicourts.gov/ecourts/efilecircuit.htm
USA Federal Courts implements eVoucher System
From the “Third Branch News”, May 7, 2014
“If you reach for the checkbook and an aspirin when faced with a mountain of bills, you’re not Cindy Jensen in the District of Nevada. When Jensen had a pile of paper voucher payments to process for Criminal Justice Act (CJA) attorneys, she looked for a better solution. Thanks to the problem-solving skills of Jensen, and a lot of input from Nevada judges and court staff, members of the bar, and a few programmers, the Judiciary has a national electronic CJA voucher processing system, with a roadmap in place for its deployment and continued development.
In early 2014, AO Director Judge John D. Bates announced that the District of Nevada’s eVoucher product would serve as the automated CJA voucher processing and management system for the Judiciary.
“The implementation of an effective national CJA eVoucher processing system is a high priority for the Judiciary,” Bates said, “particularly in the difficult financial environment we now face.” By March, plans had been formalized in which the District of Nevada and the AO would partner to transition eVoucher to a national product and continue its development. As an important part of the collaborative process, input and participation would be encouraged from Judiciary stakeholders on policy, functionality, and operations practices.
Judge Catherine Blake, chair of the Judicial Conference Committee on Defender Services, already sees advantages to a Judiciary-wide system. “Nationally, an electronic voucher processing system would give the Committee more accurate and timely projections of future payments and obligations,” said Blake. “That will help us prepare our appropriations request to Congress and responsibly manage the overall defender services program.”
Thomson Reuters (LT Court Tech) C-Track Chosen by UK Courts
Press release: May 6, 2014
Thomson Reuters announced “that its case management and electronic filing solution, C-Track, will be deployed across the jurisdictions within the Rolls building, part of the Royal Courts of Justice (RCJ).
Thomson Reuters won the contract to deliver a new system following an extensive procurement exercise by Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) to identify a preferred supplier.
The deployment of Thomson Reuters C-Track solution will enable the legal profession to adopt more efficient and cost saving working practices by using digital technology in their dealings with the Rolls Building jurisdictions.”
The full press release is available here.
eFax Filing at Riverside County California Superior Court
From our friends at Probono.net, May 21, 2014
“A pilot program at the Riverside County Superior Court in California is allowing domestic violence victims to complete applications for Domestic Violence Restraining Orders (DVRO) online and eFax completed forms to the courthouse. I spoke with The Honorable Jackson Lucky about the initiative and the impact he has witnessed in the courthouse.
At Riverside Court, domestic violence victims are one of the highest risk populations, but victims often have trouble getting access to justice. Over 6,700 domestic violence cases are filed each year at Riverside, mostly by litigants without lawyers. The filings require individuals to draft a multitude of documents, forcing them to repeatedly fill-in the same information and leading to confusion and incomplete forms. A clerk must then spend time reviewing, rejecting, or explaining the forms to the applicant. The new system, spearheaded by Susan Ryan, Managing Self-Help Attorney for Riverside Superior Court, seeks to simplify the process for applicants and increase efficiency in the court.
Individuals applying for a DVRO can now complete LHI DVRO Questionaire their filings online through an Interactive Form Completion system enabled by LawHelp Interactive (LHI) and built using HotDocs software. LHI, a Pro Bono Net program, seeks to use technology to improve the legal form and document preparation process for low-income people and the attorneys who assist them. Comparable to TurboTax, the system asks users a series of questions that build upon their answers to the preceding questions. LHI automatically populates the repetitive fields on forms, such as name or home address, saving applicants time and increasing the accuracy of completed forms.”
The full article available here.
Rhode Island Sets Fee Structure for E-Filing
Via our NCSC colleague Bill Raftery of the Gavel2Gavel blog, an article from the Providence Journal posted on May 20, 2014:
“… Governor Chafee has signed into law legislation that will move forward the state judiciary’s effort to go paperless.
Chafee on Friday signed matching House and Senate bills approving a fee structure that will allow lawyers to file court actions online from the comfort of their home or office or anywhere else for that matter.
Workers’ Compensation Court has had the electronic case-management system up for more than two months, but state lawmakers only recently approved legislation mapping out a fee structure. Lawyers have been able to view case documents, but to date have not been able to file cases remotely, absent a payment system.”The full article with the fees listed is available here.
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