ELECTRONIC FILING-MONTGOMERY COUNTY OHIO

The General Division and the Clerk of Court have prepared an entry to guide and govern the implementation of the electronic filing project. This entry was prepared and has been approved by the Supreme Court Committee on technology standards. The specific standards for e-filing were developed with input from many potential users.  This entry is being published to seek comment from members of the Bar and other interested parties in Montgomery County. Please review the proposed entry and provide any comments.

The portable document format for electronic documents is in wide use in the business and legal community.  PDF has been previously discussed as the standard that will be used for electronic filing in Montgomery County.  The basic tools and functions for PDF are contained in most word processing programs.  There are many other functions for PDF documents that are used by attorneys in their daily practice.  A site named Acrobat For Legal Professionals explores application of PDF tools that attorneys are using to add efficiency to their practice.

During the week of March 17th, the Court and Clerk started the design review phase of e-filing.  As previously discussed, the vendor chosen for this project was Tybera.  Representatives from Tybera were on site in Montgomery County to start the design phase of the project.  This involves group discussions with clerk and court staff to document and analyze current processing methods.  A critical analysis of “how we do things” is necessary so that we avoid the mistake of automating ineffecient processes and methods.  A demonstration of the review queue will be presented to the Judges to give them a better understanding of how electronic review and signatures will work.

A recent article in the Florida Bar News examined the role of attorneys in the development and use of emerging technology in the courts.  Florida has been very active in the use of electronic records and other technology advancements. From the beginning, the Montgomery County e-filing project has included Bar Association and Attorney representatives in the planning effort.

Many courts in the United States are moving to e-filing.  This filing method has a presence in 99% of the Federal Courts and is used many state courts.  The National Center for State Courts provides significant resources and information on e-filing.

In its simplest form, electronic filing is the substitution of an electronic document for a traditional paper document. With the evolution of Internet technology, electronic filing has become a highly secure and reliable method for sending, receiving, and managing [Read more →]

One of the early decisions of the e-filing group was to research and recommend a document format standard for Montgomery County e-filings. PDF or portable document format was developed by Adobe Systems. This type of electronic document has become a de facto standard for all types of electronic documents and information. A user may prepare a document, picture, or scan with virtually any type of software and “print” the output to PDF. The printed output appears as an electronic file or document viewable by anyone with a reader that is readily available at no cost. A document could be prepared with any kind of word processor on either a Windows PC or an Apple. The final product is an exact image of the original document. The document can be made secure from alteration and even printing.

The Technology Standards Committee of the Ohio Supreme Court has been very active in developing standards for computer technology for the Ohio Courts. Standards have been developed for fax filing and case management. Standards for electronic filing of court documents have been published for comment during the coming months. The Montogomery County e-filing work group have examined these standards and determined that they will be used as a framework and foundation for any systems recommended for testing or implementation. The standards as written provide a great deal of information about how e-filing can be implemented in an effective and efficient manner. These standards can be accessed at http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/actc/standards/efiling.pdf.

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. This is a unique project in that a group comprised of representatives from the Clerk, the General Division, and the Dayton Bar Association are working together on this project. Electronic filing of court documents has been implemented in many courts in the United States including most of the Federal District Courts. The need to implement this technology is great. Like many public offices, resources in the form of space and personnel have been reduced. The storage of paper files and documents has caused archive areas to overflow. Couple this problem with the expectation that information should be easily accessible and the foundation for electronic filing becomes very clear. We must move forward now so that the clerk and court will be able to serve the needs of the legal profession and the public in the future.

RSS or real simple syndication is a tool that notifies you of any updates or information to the blog.  You can receive this notification through a personal computer or cell phone. The Electronic Filing blog generates news and information about the joint electronic project of the Montgomery County Clerk of Courts and Montgomery County Common Pleas Court, General Division.

You can pull these headlines into an RSS Reader, which keeps you up-to-date when news is posted on the electronic filing project. A RSS Reader is a very efficient time saving tool for checking content on websites or blogs without having to log on and search for content that may be useful to you.

A very good visual explanation of RSS feeds can be found at a blog managed by the Clark County Courts in Nevada.  You can created an RSS feed from the e-filing blog to keep you informed about activities on the exciting project.