Transcript Teach Skills Topic - Florida Supreme Court

E-Filing
in
Florida Courts
Thomas D. Hall
Clerk, Florida Supreme Court
Jon Wheeler
Clerk, First District Court of Appeal
Bob Inzer,
Clerk, Leon County
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Chapter 2009-61 directed that clerks of
court begin implementation of e-filing no
later than 10/1/09
Same bill requested Fla. S. Ct.
establish e-filing standards.
• S. Ct. Administration Order AOSC09-30
adopted e-filing standard
• Essential part of new Standard is Florida
Courts E-Portal, “a single uniform point
of access.”
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• “All electronic court filings shall be
processed through the E-Portal once it is
established.”
• “Any other electronic filing access methods
must be approved by Florida Court
Technology Commission E-Filing
Committee.”
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• Court system is working on ITN or RFP
for portal
• Courts/Clerks are free to E-File, if
approved, prior to implementation of
the E-Portal
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Two important collateral consequences of
move to electronic filing
• Privacy
• ADA
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Proposed New Rule: Rule 2.420. Public
Access to Judicial Branch Records
Filers must identify the following information
if contained within anything filed with the
Court:
(i) Chapter 39 records relating
to dependency matters,
termination of parental rights,
guardians ad litem, child abuse,
neglect, and abandonment. §
39.0132(3), Fla. Stat.
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(ii) Adoption records. § 63.162, Fla.
Stat.
(iii) Social Security, bank account, charge,
debit and credit card numbers in court
records. § 119.0714(1)(i)–(j), (2)(a)-(e),
Fla. Stat. (Unless redaction is requested
pursuant to 119.0714(2), this information is
exempt only as of January 1, 2011.)
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(iv) HIV test results and patient identity within the
HIV test results. § 381.004(3)(e), Fla. Stat.
(v) Sexually transmitted diseases - test results
and identity within the test results. § 384.29, Fla.
Stat.
(vi) Birth and death certificates, including courtissued delayed birth certificates and fetal death
certificates. §§ 382.008(6), .025(1)(a), Fla. Stat.
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(vii) Identifying information in petition by minor
for waiver of parental notice when seeking to
terminate pregnancy. § 390.01116, Fla. Stat.
(viii) Identifying information in clinical mental
health records under the Baker Act. §
394.4615(7), Fla. Stat.
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(ix) Records of substance abuse service
providers which pertain to the identity, diagnosis,
and prognosis of and service provision to
individual clients of substance abuse service
providers. § 397.501(7), Fla. Stat.
(x) Identifying information in clinical records of
detained criminal defendants found incompetent
to proceed or acquitted by reason of insanity. §
916.107(8), Fla. Stat.
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(xi) Estate inventories. § 733.604(1), Fla. Stat.
(xii) Victim’s address in domestic violence action
on petitioner’s request. § 741.30(3)(b), Fla. Stat.
(xiii) Information identifying victims of sexual
offenses, including child sexual abuse. §§
119.071(2)(h), .0714(1)(h), Fla. Stat.
(xiv) Gestational surrogacy records. § 742.16(9),
Fla. Stat.
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(xv) Guardianship reports and orders appointing
court monitors in guardianship cases. §§
744.1076, .3701, Fla. Stat.
(xvi) Grand jury records. Ch. 905, Fla. Stat.
(xvii) Information acquired by courts and law
enforcement regarding family services for
children. § 984.06(3)-(4), Fla. Stat.
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(xviii) Juvenile delinquency records. §
985.04(1), .045(2), Fla. Stat.
(xix) Information disclosing the identity of
persons subject to tuberculosis proceedings and
Records of the Department of Health in
suspected tuberculosis cases. §§ 392.545, .65,
Fla. Stat.
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ADA Accessibility – Proposed Rule of
Judicial Administration (no number yet)
 Accessibility. All documents that are transmitted to
a court in any electronic form shall be formatted in
a manner that complies with all state and federal
laws requiring that electronic judicial records be
accessible to persons with disabilities, including
without limitation the Americans with Disabilities
Act and Section 508 of the federal Rehabilitation
Act of 1973 as incorporated into Florida law by
section 282.603(1), Florida Statutes (2009), and
any related federal or state regulations or
administrative rules.
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Committee Note
 2009 Amendment. Normally, any document filed in
“Word” format, with the correct internal document
formatting will satisfy the requirements of this rule.
Such formatting includes appropriate coding for certain
material, including but not limited to non-text,
graphics, charts, and other specialized material, and
pdf documents, so that readily available software can
make such material accessible to persons with
disabilities. The Florida Supreme Court website or
materials made available by the Florida Supreme Court
should be consulted for further technical information
regarding document formatting in compliance with this
rule.
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Leon County Technology
E-Recording
Statewide Integrated
System
E-Filing in Courts
In Court Processing
E-Recording
E-Recording is available today in Leon
County
There are no paper Official Records
Central Portal for Statewide E-Recording
under development
All 67 Counties have their Official Records
on the Web (minimum of 20 years)
Statewide Integrated Court System – Current Capability
Statewide ePortal
•Under Construction
Replaces 3 Delivery Methods
ECF XML
•In Person
•Mail
•E Documents-faxes & Scanned Doc.
67 Clerks of Court Case Maintenance Systems
•Case Initiation, Indexing, Docketing
•Official Court Record/Document Prep
•Fee Collection and Accounting
•Statewide Access/Standards
•Case Management Reporting
•Statewide Reporting
•Integration with Partners
Local/Statewide
Integration
•Judicial
•Law Enforcement
•State Attorney/Public Defender
Comprehensive Case Information
System--CCIS
Established in 2002 by Legislature to provide
access to statewide court information to
governmental users
Is a repository of all court information for all circuit
and county cases 90 million cases
Over 11,000 active users including: Dept. of Home
Land Security, FDLE, Dept. of Corrections,
Juvenile Justice, Dept. of Revenue, SAO, PD, and
Judiciary
Links related cases for defendants
Provides images of documents
Provides law enforcement ability to locate sexual
predators and individuals with outstanding
warrants
CCIS is an Internet Portal used for
accessing Clerk Court Data Statewide
67 Clerks of the Court
Broward County
Case Maintenance
Data
(Up to 6 Data Sources)
CCIS User Interface
User Login and Security
Charlotte County
Case Maintenance
Data
(Up to 6 Data Sources)
Statewide
Case
Index
Single Name Search
Case Search
Court Calendars
Ad-Hoc Reports
Columbia County
Case Maintenance
Data
(Up to 6 Data Sources)
Links to other Data Sources
64 Other Counties
Case Maintenance
Data
(Up to 6 Data Sources)
Clerk Web Sites
State Agency Web Sites
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E-Filing
Clerks have been advocates of E-filing
Clerks offered to build E-Filing Portal in Nov
2007
Clerks believe E-filing will:
• Improve Customer Service
• Reduce Costs
• Drive Efficiency
• Improve Data Quality
E-Filing
Legislature mandated E-Filing
Courts to provide guidance for Clerks E-filing
System by July 1,2009
Clerks to begin E-filing implementation by
October 1, 2009
Clerks to report to Legislature by March 31,
2009 if they are not E-filing
Nov 2007 clerks offered to build an E-filing
portal
ePortal Project
ePortal Project Summary
• The ePortal will consist of:
• eFiling and eRecording Capability
– Single statewide login for all users
– Single web access used to submit documents
– Automated interfaces with other submitter systems
– Provide for transmissions to/from the local
case/recording systems
– Provide electronic notifications and service
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ePortal Project Summary
• ePortal will be based on existing national
•
standards for eRecording and eFiling
ePortal will be integrated with existing statewide
systems (CCIS, MyFloridaCounty)
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SB 1718 – eFiling Deadlines
7/1/2009
• Supreme Court to set statewide standards for
electronic filing to be used by the Clerks of
Court
10/1/2009
• Clerks of Court shall begin implementation
3/1/2010
• CCOC shall report on the status of
implementing electronic filing
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Electronic Filing in the
First District Court of
Appeal
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Legislative Directive
Section 17, Chapter 2009-61, Laws of Florida
• Pilot project for electronic filing in the 1st DCA in
cooperation with the Office of Judges of
Compensation Claims
• In part to reduce costs to the Worker’s
Compensation Trust Fund
• Compatibility of new system with OJCC’s system
• Authorization to use credit cards to pay court filing
fees
• 1st DCA Chief Judge to report on progress 9
months after system operational
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Legislative Directive (cont.)
Under same chapter, the legislature directed
the Florida Supreme Court to promulgate
electronic filing standards for the circuit
courts
Florida courts are heading towards an
electronic, paperless system
• a question of when, not IF
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Developing Electronic Filing
System eDCA
Not Florida’s appeals courts’ first efforts at
electronic filing
Working hard to develop a system for electronic
filing in Workers’ Compensation cases pursuant to
legislative directive
At same time, creating system that can be used by
all litigants at the 1st DCA - eDCA
Eventually seeking a system in which all litigants
can file all pleadings electronically and have instant
access to all filings in that case
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Current Electronic Filing
at the First DCA
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The only electronic filing is of briefs, petitions,
responses to petitions, and replies to petitions
pursuant to Administrative Order 07-1
Documents are attached to an email and emailed to
the court
In addition to paper original and copies
 Paper original must be signed
 Date of filing determined by the date paper
original filed
Electronic copy must be in Word or Word Perfect
format
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Current Electronic Filing
at the First DCA (cont.)
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Electronic documents compared to original
documents to ensure they are the same
The document is downloaded from the email
and placed into a court directory not accessible
by litigants
Currently, only other electronic documents in
case files are court’s orders and opinions
Just starting to convert lower tribunal’s paper
record to electronic records with in-house staff
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New Electronic Filing
System (eDCA)
Registration
• Attorneys and Pro Se litigants will be required to register
prior to filing electronically
• Emailed copies of brief will not be accepted but will require
filing electronically after registration
• Registration accomplished on court’s web page
• Must provide basic information – address, phone number,
bar number, email address, etc.
• Will probably require attorneys’ addresses to be same as
listed with the Florida Bar for registration
• With registration, the individual provides a user name and
password
• Attorney or litigant’s responsibility to safeguard their user
name and password
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New Electronic Filing System
(cont.)
• In the beginning, will require electronic filing through
eDCA in addition to paper original and copies (as
required now), but can file 24/7 with eDCA
• Eventually, once eDCA has been tested, the court
hopes to eliminate the requirement of filing paper
copies and then paper filings altogether
• For those registered under eDCA, we hope to have
orders/opinions or notices of orders/opinions
available electronically, with a link in the email
notification
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New Electronic Filing System vs.
Current Requirement
• Unlike current electronic filing requirement, eDCA will allow
•
•
users to upload their brief directly through the court’s website
(rather than by email)
Unlike current electronic filing requirement, documents filed
through eDCA will be required to be filed in PDF format (not
Word or Word Perfect)
– PDF prepared either by scanning or converting directly
from word processing
Under eDCA attorneys will be able to access electronic
copies of pleadings filed in their cases
– No access to pleadings in cases in which you are not an
attorney of record
– However, access to all non-restricted cases available
through a public terminal at the court house
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Visions for New Electronic
Filing System
Eventually, the goal is to have all pleadings by attorneys
filed electronically through eDCA without paper originals or
copies
If filed by registered party/attorney, the user’s name and
password, will constitute their signature
Be able to have all orders, opinions, and mandates of the
court available electronically through eDCA using email
notice of the posting
Allow pro se litigants to file through eDCA, but any paper
only pleadings that are received will be scanned and put
into eDCA
Have vision of getting Department of Corrections to allow
prisoners to file documents through eDCA as a cost saving
measure
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Visions for New Electronic
Filing System (cont.)
Electronic Forms
• Have step-by-step forms to file pleadings such
as motions and briefs
– Fill in blanks
– Reminder of rule requirements (style, font, page
limits, etc)
– Docketing statements
• Especially useful for pro se litigants
• Establish system for payment of fees by credit
card
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Other Visions for New Electronic
Filing System
Electronic filing of the lower tribunal record on appeal
• Records directly uploaded to the court through
eDCA by agencies and lower courts
• Electronic copies of records go to attorneys as well
(or access through eDCA)
• Lower tribunal records will be searchable and allow
copying and pasting from the record
• The idea is to have records electronically indexed
so users can jump directly to a particular part of a
document
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Advantages of Electronic Filing
Save money for the District Court, lower courts,
attorneys and litigants
• Paper
• Postage
• Preparation of copies (employee time)
Increases efficiency
24/7 access for filing
Increased accessibility to court records for litigants
Allows for permanent retrieval of court documents
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