BEAVER, PA AND SEATTLE, WA, October 03, 2006 - LexisNexis U.S., a leading provider of information and litigation support technology and services, today announced that the Beaver County Court of Common Pleas has initiated mandatory electronic filing using LexisNexis® File & Serve for all civil and family cases, except where prohibited by Statute.
The change makes the Court the first of the 60 Courts of Common Pleas in Pennsylvania to require e-filing, the first state court to change the standard format for all legal papers to electronic and first state court to require e-filing for a broad cross-section of cases – all per new local Rule 205.4 recently issued by President Judge Robert Kunselman.
Electronic filing will be phased in over the next six months, starting with new mortgage foreclosure filings that began September 25. New judgment and lien cases will follow on Nov. 13, with all other new civil and family matters, except those prohibited by Pennsylvania Statute, to begin early in the new year. Litigants who do not have access to electronic means of filing elsewhere may e-file at the Office of the Prothonotary in the Beaver County Courthouse.
Once complete, the conversion from paper to electronically filed documents is expected to eliminate approximately 200 inbound and 40 outbound paper documents each day.
"The Court was simply running out of space at the courthouse and at our off-site file storage site, and we wanted to take advantage of the reduced paper and cost benefits of LexisNexis File & Serve," said Judge Kunselman. ""Once we began consulting with members of our Bar and others in the system, it became clear that the benefits of filing and accessing case documents without having to come to the courthouse would be a substantial to all involved in litigation and so was another reason to change the way we receive and process legal papers."
"The Beaver County Court of Pleas is on the leading edge of electronic filing in Pennsylvania and nationally, and we are extremely pleased to work with them on this groundbreaking project that has clear benefits for the Court and the public," said Tobias Hartmann, vice president and managing director of LexisNexis File & Serve.
"On the litigant side, e-filing via File & Serve is a great example of the LexisNexis Total Practice Solutions strategy of helping attorneys by providing them the most complete set of tools and services to help them manage litigation more effectively," said Hartmann.
"In particular for attorneys, File & Serve is a key component of LexisNexis® Total Litigator, the only single, online destination offering litigators a comprehensive set of tools and services to manage cases at each step the litigation process," said Hartmann.
Rich DeFilippi, Beaver’s Court Administrator, and Nancy Werme, Beaver County’s Prothonotary, agree with the benefits of e-filing.
"Scanning all paper filings – something we have done for quite some time – has shown no considerable economies of scale, so we wanted a different way of working with an electronic format. Today, most documents begin as electronic files anyway, and e-filing eliminates the ‘detour’ of printing to paper simply to file. And, with this project, we offer an electronic filing option right at the Court, to those who are self represented or have no access to the internet," said DeFilippi.
"I hope this will lead to a new era of increased convenience and accessibility for the public, litigants and attorneys," said Werme.
In addition to Court benefits, litigants gain more control over their case file management with e-filing. Along with quicker and more cost efficient filing, File & Serve also offers improved access to information and increased efficiency and enhanced case monitoring. Additionally, the public benefits from e-filing by the Court’s ability to more efficiently manage documents and reduced costs for document storage and administration.
File & Serve is a customized Internet-based service that provides online delivery and management of public and sealed documents filed with the court and exchanged between attorneys. The service is paid for with transaction fees, so there is no charge to the court. File & Serve is used by more than 70,000 court personnel and legal professionals nationwide who file and serve an estimated 21 million documents annually into more than 1 million cases.
