Tuesday, March 12, 2002
Page 3
This District’s Court of Appeal Launches Pilot Project for Electronic Filing
By a MetNews Writer
The Court of Appeal for this district yesterday launched a pilot project designed to evaluate the usefulness of electronic records and briefs, Clerk/Administrator Joseph A. Lane said.
The pilot program “is designed to assist the Court in evaluating both the usefulness of electronic media and the appropriate procedures for their acceptance,” the court said in a written invitation to counsel to participate.
Attorneys wishing to file electronically must obtain a stipulation of all counsel as to the procedures to be used, and the proposed procedures must be approved by the court before any electronic filing is actually done. Electronic filing is in addition to all paper filings required under the court rules, and must be completed within 15 days after paper briefing is completed, according to the invitation.
The court’s staff isn’t bracing for a raft of electronic filings, Lane said.
“I don’t anticipate, for the time being, there’s going to be a tremendous response,” he told the MetNews. While there may be an advantage to electronic filing, particularly in complicated cases where it would enable lawyers and staff members to locate materials more easily, the effort and expense required are likely to outweigh the benefits in most instances, Lane explained
The rules for the project require that all electronic records and briefs be on Windows-compatible CD-ROMs, be identical in content to their paper counterparts, come with their own viewing programs or be viewable with a downloadable program such as Adobe Acrobat or with both Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator or with Microsoft Word, and be accompanied by a statement verifying the absence of computer viruses and the use of virus-detecting software.
Those wishing more information were invited by the court to call Lane at 213-830-7000.
Copyright 2002, Metropolitan News Company