State courts to move to online filing

By Lesley Weidenbener
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS – The state courts system is working to create an e-filling system that will let attorneys and others submit documents via the web while giving defendants and plaintiffs easier access to filings.

The Division of State Court Administration is now taking bids for an e-filing manager, a company that will work to coordinate separate systems now used throughout Indiana and make it possible for paperwork filed in one place to be easily shipped to another.

Currently, documents are filed in county courts by paper, as they’ve been for 200 years.

“Nearly every aspect of our lives includes electronic documents — stores send receipts via email, banks allow check deposits through a smart phone,” said Chief Justice Brent Dickson said. “Now lawyers and litigants will be able to file court documents electronically. Using this technology, our courts will be more efficient and better able to administer justice without delay.”

But that doesn’t mean all the paperwork will be available online at no cost to the public. Appeals Court Judge Paul Mathias, who has helped spearhead the project, said court officials haven’t decided how to make the information available to people who aren’t a party to a case.

Records will continue to be accessible at no charge at county courthouses and the Statehouse, he said. But other states that have gone to online records have imposed fees for accessing them online. A decision about Indiana’s online records will be made after an e-filing manager is hired, Mathias said.

The system changes will include upgrading the appellate courts’ 28-year-old computer system and moving those filings onto the Odyssey case management system, which is already used in courts in 48 counties.

“I can’t express strongly enough how excited we are to do this,” Mathias said about the project. “This is the culmination of 10 years of really carefully observing and researching and testing to reach a point that court technology has developed to meet Indiana’s needs. That time is now.”

The statewide e-filing system is expected to begin in phases starting in 2015. Court officials said Hoosiers and their attorneys will benefit from being able to file documents at any time. And they say “free market competition” is expected to keep associated fees low.

In 2006, the state courts created an e-filing pilot program. Three projects were approved for e-filing on a limited basis.

“The court is appreciative of the ground work completed by the pilot counties,” said Supreme Court Justice Mark Massa, who chairs technology projects for the courts. “The initial work demonstrates that e-filing is beneficial to litigants, lawyers, judges, clerks and their staffs.”

Lesley Weidenbener is executive editor of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.