Eliminating the Paperwork Shuffle

The Christian County court system has entered the digital age. Utilizing the Missouri Electronic Filling System to accept fiings digitally, as well as manage and check the status of cases online, attorneys can now access any case, any time, from anywhere.

Officially active April 14, Christian County Circuit Clerk Barb Stillings said the process wasn’t as easy as simply flipping a switch.

“We began the implementation process in 2012, scanning files in with the Justice Information System,” Stillings said of the statewide case management system software. “Bigger counties are doing it in chunks. Christian County decided to do it all so attorneys know everything in Christian County is e-filed.”

Greene County’s neighbor to the south is the fifth in the state to implement the electronic portal system this year, with 25 others slated by year’s end, according to the Office of State Courts Administrator.  The move is part of the Missouri judiciary’s long-term goal of implementing e-filing statewide.

The Missouri Supreme Court was first to the pilot system on Sept. 1, 2011, and today, 60 of Missouri’s 114 counties – 52 percent – have already implemented or are expected to implement the system this year. On a volunteer system, Greene, Christian, Taney and Lawrence counties in southwest Missouri have already made the move. Counties in and around St. Louis, Columbia and the Bootheel have gone digital and Kansas City-area counties are expected to make the move this year. Many central and northern Missouri counties have no official plans in place.

“People are used to technology and they have learned it’s hard at first, but it pays incredible dividends in the long run,” said Crista Hogan, executive director of the Springfield Metropolitan Bar Association. “I know there sometimes is a lot of apprehension and the occasional issue to tweak, but in my experience, it’s gone very smoothly.”

The gains
According to OSCA, the judicial branch has long had a goal of electronic filing. Five objectives including reducing time and effort for clerks, offering greater flexibility and simplifying the process guided development of the basic electronic filing system.

While the court’s goals have propelled the shift, Greene County Circuit Clerk Steve Helms said the county’s April 1, 2013, switch also has had unexpected monetary gains.

“We cut about $30,000 from our budget in paper goods, such as files and labels, in just one year,” he said. “I suspect there is even more savings in mail costs as well. While the county doesn’t itemize those costs, I’ve noticed a significant drop. We used to have four people sorting mail. Now, most days we have two, sometimes one.”

In addition, Helms said his office also has begun to reverse previous spending habits and is able to free up some much-needed space. “Since I started in 2008, we’ve spent about $20,000 on shelves just to hold files. Those shelves are now empty,” he said. “We’ve been using our break room as a training room and it creates a lot of scheduling problems. As we free up shelves, we free up needed space in the office for other duties.”

Helms said his office processes about 36,000 new cases a year, which are all done electronically, and his office continues to scan older cases. Criminal case records are available electronically back to 2012 and  civil and domestic cases are scanned in back to 2011.

Helms said the scanning work is funded through a $27,500 Missouri courts grant.

“We’ve got two people scanning full time and the remainder of the staff scans when they are finished with their regular work,” he said. “The project runs from January through October and we had a goal of 18,000 cases. However, I think we’re going to do closer to 25,000 or 30,000 cases in that time frame.”

As expected, Helms said the new system also saves staff time and increases efficiency.

“Going electronic has refined the process,” he said. “We used to spend a third of our time just moving paper around.”

The challenges
While a saver in the long run, converting to e-filing isn’t free or painless. Stillings said courtroom technology upgrades have cost about $22,300 since 2012, for items such as computer updates, monitors and scanners.

“A lot of computers at the bench had to be updated,” she said. “The benches have two monitors and the clerks have two monitors to help simulate looking at a file and being able to take notes while looking at the document.”

Stillings said her office gets funds from two places. About $4,300 for new monitors and warranties from her 2013 county budget and about $18,000 from the law library fund, where a portion of all filing fees are allocated.

“We are able to spend it on technology, if it is for the benefit of the courtroom,” she said.

Stilling said she and her staff also made time in their schedules for staff training on the new system.

“The OSCA came the week before to look at jobs and how it would change job duties,” she said. “There is always a lot of training that goes into a new system. We try to make it as stress free for everyone as possible.”

Greene County’s Helms said some areas will take longer to fully implement, such as criminal cases, which are still several steps away from being fully digital.

“With the Justice Information System came about, we were one of the last to jump on the tech train. When e-filing started, I knew we didn’t want to be late to the game again,” he said. “You can benefit from being the guinea pig in situations like this. When problems arise, as they always do, you can help direct and drive the solution.”

The SMBA’s Hogan said people are resistent to change, but from her perspective, the process in Greene County has gone as well as can be expected.

“When there is a problem, I hear about it – loudly,” she said. “I know there was apprehension, but right now, the local silence speaks volumes.”

Freelance writer Kandice McKee contributed to this article.