electronic Filing & Service for Courts

Texas Editorial Calls for eFiiling

The Southeast Texas Record calls for efiling:

"It's about time Jefferson County started putting all civil court complaints and material filings online-- in real-time or close to it. The technology is available and affordable-- the federal courts have been doing this for years via PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) program-- all it takes now is some courthouse initiative and political will.

Who would want to keep our civil courts out of the public eye? We'll see soon enough."

The whole world uses technology more than the judiciary.....

... but they keep talking about it.

Powers said she would start with making sure that all cases are filed randomly or that lawyers are not allowed to pick which judge hears or, just as importantly, doesn’t hear their case.

“I think maybe that is what is supposed to be done now, but I want it to be more transparent. I want to make sure that when an attorney walks into the District Clerk’s Office to file a case, that case is going to be filed right then. And he is going to have his court date when he leaves the office. She said next, she would like to implement the electronic filing of the monthly reports with the with the Court Administrators Office. She would also like to foster better working relationships with other elected officials, foster a professional image for the office and seek reimbursements from the state for fees the county earns for collecting child support.

Spencer said she,“has been considering the future implementation of E-Filing for the District Clerk’s Office. This will take the efforts of the District Courts, local bar association and Commissioner’s Court.”

First though, she has been looking into making documents more immediately accessible to the public at large. She said she wants to put documents that have already been imaged on the Grayson County Website. She also wants to start imaging documents as they are filed returning the original documents to the filing attorney or paralegal.
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Electronic filing allows a case to be filed imediately and, depending on how it is set up, can be automatically docketed and randomly assigned to a Judge.

Electronic Filing can make documents immediately accessible to the public via public access terminals that allow this access.

Why spend the resources to image documents as they are filed? Those documents are created electronically by the filing attorney or paralegal. An electronic filing system will securely transmit those digital documents to the court...the court can review and accept/reject online....and those documents can they be accessed by the court or parties to the case via a connection to the Internet and a Web Browser. The eFile system provides electronic acknowledgements to the filing party upon acceptance or rejection and the parties/court can print those documents when they need a paper copy.

Imaging or eFiling.....eFiling is the answer.

The whole world uses technology more than the judiciary!

Judge Fred Edwards Makes it Mandatory

Judge Edwards of the Texas 9th District Court, "since 2000, has mandated that all papers filed in civil cases coming through his court be filed electronincally..."
He advises it is "extremely helpful...it's organized and it's at my touch to look at everything I need. It's saved hundreds and thousands of hours of time in the District Clerk's office and my office."

Says Pam Robichaux, supervisor in the District Clerk's office: "It's been very helpful to us and it is helpful to the attorneys. Everything is available from your desk. We really like it."
For those at the ABA Convention in Chicago this week, make a point to listen to Judge Edwards in a panel presentation titled : "Current Trends in Court Technology"

Judge Edwards is a true champion of electronic filing!

Texas

From the Austin American-Statesman (Texas), February 24, 2005

Chief justice urges legislators to increase pay, retain judges

by: Stephen Scheibal, AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

For those who follow such things, Wednesday's State of the Judiciary speech was something of a landmark.

Not only was the speaker someone other than Tom Phillips, the former chief justice who stepped down last year after nearly 17 years presiding over the Texas Supreme Court, but the speech to the Legislature didn't even touch on one of Phillips' longest-held political gripes: the way Texas elects judges.

Instead, new Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson pressed budgeteers for a pay raise for Texas judges.

Read those comments on next page

Jefferson also noted the judiciary's efforts to make courts more technologically nimble through electronic filings and Internet broadcasts of hearings.

He generally avoided comments about the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which has come under national scrutiny amid questions about whether people whose convictions the court upheld received fair trials.

He did credit judges on that bench for encouraging both the investigation of innocence claims and better representation for poor defendants.

He ignored altogether his predecessor's long-standing call to de-politicize judicial elections; candidates must keep voters -- and contributors -- in mind if they want to keep their jobs.