The Michigan Public Service Commission’s Electronic Case Filings System provides for the electronic submission of filed documents and online access of documents submitted in select cases before the Commission. All documents are available in Portable Document Format (PDF) files. These files can be searched and text can be copied directly from the file for later reference. Documents available from this system mirror the filed paper copies, which are still required and remain the legal/official copy at this time. Additional cases will be added over time leading to full scale availability.
The Michigan Public Service Commission's (MPSC) Electronic Case Filings Project began as a pilot on March 31, 1999. Six utility companies volunteered to use select cases as pilot cases. As of August 2003, 391 cases have been electronically filed and over 9,300 documents have been electronically posted to the system. We are continuing to make refinements and enhancements to the Electronic Case Filing Web site and to look for ways to streamline the administrative process.
The processes for filing and accessing electronic documents have been designed to be simple and straight forward. To file a document, participants convert the original document to a Portable Document Format (PDF) file and upload it to the MPSC Electronic Case Filings Web site after completing a brief document description. MPSC staff review the document description to ensure it is properly described and readable, and post the file to the MPSC Electronic Case Filings Web site. The electronic submission of all documents in these cases is in addition to the existing paper filing process.
All Electronically filed case documents can be searched, downloaded, viewed, and printed. Documents are grouped first by industry and then by case number and are displayed in reverse chronological order (the most recent filings are located at the top of the page). These files can be viewed by the public at http://efile.mpsc.cis.state.mi.us/efile.
A Users Manual also provides information on: (1) how to file a document, (2) how to organize large filings, (3) information on creating PDF files, (4) using digital signatures, and (5) alternate methods for filing if the Internet or E-mail systems are not available.
Participants must submit a signed assurance agreeing to the specifics of the system's operations. Afterwards, users are assigned a user name and password to access the file upload area of the system. The user documentation is available at the "Electronic Filings" help section for easy online reference.
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