Local courts will soon begin testing an electronic filing system that could speed up the judicial process and make information available more quickly to attorneys and clients.
Madison County has been chosen to conduct a pilot program that will determine whether electronic filings systems used by federal courts in Mississippi can also be utilized in state courts.
In addition to being able to enter filings online, attorneys and litigants could receive e-mail updates whenever the opposition in a court case enters filings. A link in the e-mail would send the user to the online filing.
The system could also reduce expenses for attorneys and paperwork for state courts.
The federal filing system is called Case Management/Electronic Case Filing system (CM/ECF). The state Supreme Court recently authorized Chancery Clerk Arthur Johnston and Circuit Clerk Lee Westbrook to test the system.
Johnston said he and Westbrook will be testing CM/ECF over the next four months using a program at the WIN Job Center in Canton. The tests will utilize past cases in order to simulate actual court filings.
If the initial tests go well, then the courts could begin using live filings during the first part of next year, Johnston told the Board of Supervisors on Monday.
It is not clear yet how much the system would cost if it is installed.
The northern and southern federal districts in Mississippi, which began utilizing electronic filings in 2002, will have to be modified in some ways to fit state courts and their unique caseloads.
Previous court cases will not be included in the court information available on any new electronic system.
Johnston and Westbrook recently spent two weeks in San Antonio becoming familiar with the system.
One of the primary benefits of CM/ECF, Johnston said, is the speed at which the local court system will be able to operate.
"I think it's going to speed up the ability of our judiciary to dispose of cases," he said.
Madison County Chancery Court currently handles about 1,000 to 1,200 cases every year. Westbrook's office handles 3,000 to 3,500 cases every year.
For attorneys and their clients, the new electronic filing system would give them unprecedented, up-to-date access to information.
"The beauty of the system is, as soon as the other side files something, you know about it," Johnston said.
Westbrook said that the system would allow her to communicate more effectively with judges about scheduling and other matters, reducing conflicts and streamlining everyone's calendar.
"It would allow the judges and the circuit clerk to interact on the same system," she said.
Board President and District 3 Supervisor Andy Taggart, a practicing attorney in Madison, said that the electronic filing system has impressed him whenever he has dealt with cases in federal courts.
Whereas previous information exchanges would take as long as a week, the new system would allow instant updates for clients, who could see the same information as their attorneys without having to wait for it.
"Now, it can all be done within minutes," Taggart said. "The client is seeing it at the same time the lawyer is."
Another benefit is that the new system would make information more readily available and more uniform to the state Supreme Court.
He noted that several times, accurate statistics on judges and their caseloads are not always available because of the different ways that different chancery courts enter those numbers.
The CM/ECF system would eliminate these irregularities and create more accurate numbers.
"With the new system, the Supreme Court will be able to gather that data from their vantage point in Jackson from all over the state," Westbrook said.
Court employees could also spend less time inputting case filings, since the lawyers would be responsible for doing them electronically, and could focus on other duties.
Johnston did say the system may turn out to be impractical for state courts after the testing period is over.
But the federal electronic filing system should at least prove to be a solid foundation.
"It's got good bones, and from those bones you could create something different," Westbrook said.
Reader Comments
Posted: Thursday, October 04, 2007
Article comment by:
Paul M. Bush
This is wonderful and would be a great accomplishment if implemented successfully.
CM/ECF is used (nearly) nationwide and has been utilized to process millions of filings in U.S. District and Bankruptcy Courts over the years. Even U.S. Appellate Courts have begun to go live with this system. It provides court case management, public access, electronic filing and noticing, with a uniform user interface.
Across the country state judiciaries have made the mistake of developing their software from scratch, which has resulted in great delays, wasted money, and produced inferior products. Additionally, a small number of states instead of building their own system, allowed vendors to develop software for them, which in one state has resulted in a court case information monopoly, and high fees for the public.
I applaud Mississippi for making the logical decision to try to use the existing CM/ECF product in their state courts!
