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The state of electronic court filing: courts are moving ahead to implement electronic filing systems - with or without input from the local bar. Knowing about what exists now can help lawyers shape systems yet to come.

Article Excerpt
Electronic filing is still in its infancy, but attorneys are witnessing its rapid spread throughout the nation's courts. There are no comprehensive state statistics yet, but on the federal side, over 40,000 users have filed their cases electronically with the 25 district and 60 bankruptcy courts that have implemented the Case Management/ Electronic Case Files system. As of September 1, the system held more than 10 million cases. (1)

In many ways the technology is still emerging, so in most jurisdictions attorney input can affect future implementations. While lawyers may need to adapt to the early systems that are in place, these will be upgraded and replaced with more advanced systems in the years to come. There is plenty of time for bar associations to get involved--if they are not already--and participate in shaping future electronic tiling systems.

Electronic filing models

Unfortunately, many projects get under way without input from the local bar. Lawyers are often invited to the table late in the game--sometimes only when they are trained in how to use the new electronic tiling system. Because courts have traditionally made their own decisions about technology and selected their case management systems independently, they ]nay need a nudge to get lawyers on board from the inception of the project.

There are at least three different architectural models for developing an electronic court-filing system, and each affects lawyers differently.

Court-control model. Under this model, an outside vendor may create and install the system, but the vendor is "invisible" to the attorneys and does not interact with them. (2) The court itself implements and administers the system and deals directly with the lawyers as they file documents by logging on to a court Web server. This model is typically chosen by courts that wish to retain control over their systems and do not want vendors standing between them and the lawyers...

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