Circuit Court expands eFiling program

The Sixth Judicial Circuit Court continues to move toward its objective of efficient and effective court operations with the addition of two more judges to the eFiling program. Judge Denise Langford Morris joined the program on Dec. 2. Judge Leo Bowman will follow on Dec. 14. The eFiling program requires attorneys in certain types of cases to electronically file and serve documents. Oakland's eFiling initiative debuted in 2007 with one courtroom and 300 civil cases as a combined effort of the County Clerk's Office, the Circuit Court, and the Department of Information Technology. The Odyssey File & Serve system, supplied by associate service provider Tyler Technologies, has become well established, making the filing of documents with the court easier, faster, and more cost effective. EFiling provides benefit to both the court and County Clerk's Office in that it reduces costs for filing, storage and retrieval of court documents. Over time, the program has expanded to 16,338 cases with 10,641 users from more than 3,200 law firms and used by all judges in the civil/criminal division of Circuit Court. "As the original eFiling judge," said Judge Michael Warren, "I am thrilled and thankful that all of the hard work and dedication put forth by court administration, IT, and others has resulted in our ability to bring this most innovative and beneficial system to all civil dockets in Oakland County. Involving all judges allows for consistency and dramatic productivity gains for the general public, litigants, lawyers, and judges." In addition, the Circuit Court has approved a pilot project to assess the benefits of eFiling in family division matters. The program is currently taking place in two courts and only on divorce cases which do not involve children. The court looks forward to expanding its eFiling program within the family division in the near future. Among the benefits to eFiling are: * Judges, attorneys, litigants, and court staff can file and access documents electronically 7 days a week, 365 days a year. * Electronic filing reduces the amount of paperwork generated by the courts. * Documents can be filed or accessed from any location, at any time. * Electronic filing helps the courts operate with greater efficiency that directly affects attorneys and their clients. Oakland County Clerk Ruth Johnson said the nationally recognized eFiling service has been a win-win for the Clerk's Office, the Oakland County Circuit Court, local attorneys and the taxpayers of Oakland County. "Not only has eFiling saved a tower of paper more than 13 stories tall, this technology has made our office more efficient and reduced customer lines," said Johnson. "Traditional filings took about seven minutes to process and could take up to one business day to be available. With eFiling, we can accept and process electronically filed pleadings in less than a minute. Better yet, the document is immediately available." One of the court's top priorities is the training of attorneys county-wide to ensure that eFiling runs as smoothly as possible. Training on the system is available on a walk-in basis twice each month in the Judicial Conference Room located on the second floor of the courthouse at 1200 North Telegraph in Pontiac. For specific dates and times, visit www.oakgov.com/clerkrod/efiling. Online training and video tutorial are also available through the eFiling website at www.wiznet.com/oaklandmi. Published: Fri, Dec 3, 2010

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