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Civil Case
Processing
CivilDIMS,
our civil case management system, was implemented in late 1999. The
system handles the filing and allotment of 17,000 new cases annually,
the filing of various pleadings and motions, issuance of documents
requiring service, deposits, and filing fees. It includes a
comprehensive accounting subsystem that disburses the fees collected to
the clerk's office, the various judicial funds, and the sheriffs and
other entities that make service. Currently, all transactions are paper
based and filed in person, mailed, or faxed.
JeffNet
Electronic Filing
Civil
e-filing is envisioned as a new service that will be available to
JeffNet subscribers only. JeffNet’s credit card capabilities will allow
the collection of an advance deposit and subsequent replenishment of the
account balance. Since JeffNet is Internet based, site visits by Clerk
personnel are not required.
Any JeffNet
subscriber, including an e-filer, may view the litigants, attorneys,
filings, service, account balances and other information related to a
specific civil case number. In time, they will be able to view images of
documents that have been e-filed or scanned.
JeffNet will
be voluntary and available for any civil case, not a specific category
such as asbestos cases. Any civil case may be a combination of paper and
electronic filings. There will be no requirement to use one medium or
another exclusively.
JeffNet will
provide a facility for attorneys, who must first be subscribers, to
register to submit electronic filings. Attorneys will provide their bar
roll numbers and be assigned temporary passwords which they will change
to passwords of their own choosing. Attorney’s will assume sole
responsibility for the security of their passwords and will indemnify
the Clerk against misuse.
An attorney
will be able to file a new case and have it allotted immediately. The
appropriate advance deposit amount will be collected by credit card when
the new case is filed.
When a filing
is made on an existing case, the system will validate the attorney’s
e-filing password. It must correspond to the bar roll number of an
attorney of record for one of the litigants. A filing may be made only
for a litigant that the attorney represents. The will be no provision,
at least initially, for e-filing in proper person.
An electronic
filing will involve entry of a case number, selection of a litigant,
identifying the type of filing, indicating if the filing requires
service, attaching the document(s) to the filing, and submission. Upon
receipt, the filing will be recorded, charges will be applied to the
case, a credit card transaction will be generated if necessary, and the
document(s) will be stored in the imaging database. The submitter will
receive confirmation, including the actual filing time, by e-mail.
We expect to
support a few formats for e-filed documents but the principal format
will be Adobe Acrobat PDF files, the federal bankruptcy court standard.
Issuing
As now, all
issuing will be paper driven and handled by the Clerk’s docket sections.
At the start of each day, each docket clerk will print a report of the
documents for their divisions that were e-filed the previous day. At
least initially, they will review each filing for accuracy and take
corrective action as necessary. If the submitter has indicated that the
e-filed document requires service, the issuing clerk will print a hard
copy of the document and proceed with issuing in the usual way.
Other Issues
We expect to
assess additional charges for an e-filing, but the amount and frequency
(one-time charge per litigant, a charge for each filing, etc.) have not
been determined.
We think
JeffNet subscribers will find e-filing superior to fax filing, however,
we will continue to offer that service as required by statute.
Attorney
Participation
An internal
steering committee has been formed to oversee the e-filing project. The
federal bankruptcy court and the judges of the 24th JDC have
been briefed and are supportive of our e-filing initiative.
We are
interested in enlisting an advisory panel of attorneys drawn from the
law firms and individual attorneys who have expressed an interest in
e-filing. We are particularly interested in attorneys who practice
extensively in the 24th JDC. We expect panel members to be
the initial users of the new e-filing service. The steering committee
will schedule a series of meetings with the panel to get their input and
modify the e-filing plan as necessary.
Attorneys who
would like to participate should e-mail us at
efiling@JeffNet.com.
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