California's Judicial Branch is progressing toward a strategy and workflow that would allow courts statewide to utilize e-filing.
At an Oct. 14 meeting of its IT advisory council, members gave an update on a range of considerations for the program. According to meeting documents, the council could recommend that the Judicial Branch develop a Budget Change Proposal or apply for innovation grants in order to fund the program.
This summer, the Judicial council approved technical information exchange standards for e-filing in all state trial courts, and hired a consultant to help develop a certification process for e-filing service providers. A recently approved project road map includes "statewide policies, high-level functional requirements," and direction for the advisory council manage a procurement process to select multiple e-filing service providers.
The project team also is weighing factors such identity management at multiple court locations, the technical architecture, vendor management, and support and licensing.
A high-level summary of the proposed project timeline says the Judicial Branch could release an RFP for Electronic File Management in December 2016 and award a contract sometime during Q1 2017.
Some courts already use e-file solutions. For instance, one year ago the California Court of Appeal for the Third Appellate District in Sacramento issued a new rule requiring attorneys to e-file all case types.
