electronic Filing & Service for Courts

Update: Montgomery County Ohio

From the Dayton Daily News

"On Tuesday, county commissioners agreed to advertise for proposals for the electronic case filing system, expected to cost about $500,000.

The system would streamline records management, save file storage space, improve business practices, and reduce manual handling of files, Drubert said."

Ohio hoping to link all courts on one Web site

"The Ohio Supreme Court hopes to launch an online site by December that within two years could contain legal records from all 385 Ohio courts - from the high court down through the municipals.

The Ohio Courts Network - discussed within the legal community since 2003 but with nothing tangible to report to date - received a big boost last week when Gov. Ted Strickland included the idea in his state budget lineup.

Strickland proposed allocating $10.5 million over the next two years to get the program up and running.

The network would essentially bring every criminal and civil case docket, from all 88 counties in the state, to the fingertips of any judge or attorney who wants the information.

For that reason, in part, the system has drawn spotty support within the judicial community. Groups representing probate- and municipal-court judges and the Ohio Clerk of Courts Association have already endorsed the program.

Groups representing juvenile- and domestic-court judges, concerned about privacy, have been silent. Appeals court judges are neutral, and common pleas judges have backed it but are concerned about what the network will eventually cost at the local level, another major unknown detail. "

The challenges that Ohio faces include:
* Courts in various stages of technology adoption
* Multiple case management systems
* What information courts will be required to provide to the network?
* How will the courts staff be trained and supported?
* How will all the attorney filers be trained and supported?
* Will court filing fees be increased to pay for the maintenance of the network?

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The Ohio Courts Network could provide the people of Ohio greater access to their courts but the cost will likely far exceed the $10.5 million currently requested.

There could be a better way: EMAIL ME

Dayton, Ohio Begins to Explore eFile Options

The Clerk of Court and the General Division of the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court have embarked on an exciting project that will pave the way for electronic filing of court pleadings and documents.

Read about it here

Ohio: Courthouse on the cutting edge

From Crain's Cleveland Business, 12/20/2004. Several innovations at the Carl B. Stokes U.S. Court House in Cleveland are setting the pace for the rest of the country. For example, an e-filing system that predates the court's new building has brought a slew of multi-district cases to the court, making it a prototype for similar systems elsewhere. More recently, three courtrooms were outfitted with sophisticated evidence presentation technology, and a fourth will be updated soon. The court also became one of the first in the country to offer public access to all court records - including those involving criminal cases - over the Internet. ''These (technology upgrades) are not always easy to do,'' said Paul Matia, chief judge, adding that allowing the public Internet access to documents and records in criminal cases has been an especially challenging effort. ''We are still struggling with how to comply with privacy laws and standards and at the same time make it an efficient system.''