Florida Courts E-Filing Portal Update

September 2015

Florida Bar Article

E-filing is now the norm

The Florida Bar

http://www.floridabar.org/DIVCOM/JN/jnnews01.nsf/8c9f13012b96736985256aa900624829/bc49c6fd08bce14585257eba004410df!OpenDocument

September 8, 2015

By Gary Blankenship

Four years ago, you were probably still taking your court-related paperwork to the courthouse (or having a runner do it) and dropping it off at the clerk’s office.

Service was done by mail, runner, fax (if it wasn’t too long) or perhaps if you were progressive by email.

There was this thing out there, nibbling at the edge, known as the statewide e-filing portal for the court system. And while many, if not most, county clerks of court were tied into the portal, usually only a few select attorneys in those counties were actually filing anything through it, more or less as testers. And that was only civil cases. Only attorneys were authorized to do e-filing.

In fact, during the portal’s first month, in January 2011 (a legislative act in 2009 mandated that the portal open that month), a total of 229 documents were filed. By summer, that had risen to 6,225 documents. As the system geared up, sometimes it took days before e-filed documents were docketed, particularly after e-filing became mandatory in civil cases by Supreme Court order in 2012.

Fast forward to this summer.

Document filings now average more than 54,000 a day and more than 1.8 million a month. Some hours have seen more than 8,000 filings — more than the first six months in 2011. Docketing is generally done within the day. . .

Your Accomplishments To-Date

2013 Florida Supreme Court MandatesApril - Civil Divisions

October - Criminal Divisions – Batch Filings

October 2013 – E-service implemented

March 2014Filing to Florida Supreme Court

2nd District Court of Appeals

June 2014 – Added Filer RolesJudge

Self-Represented Litigant

Added A2J – Document Generation

October 2014 – New Filer OptionsManage My E-service

Clerk Filing to the Department of Corrections

April 2015 – New Filer and Clerk OptionsMy Fees

Progress Bar for Uploading Documents

Current E-Filing Jurisdictions

Trial Courts

67 Counties

Appellate

Courts

2nd DCA

Florida

Supreme Court

1st, 3rd, 4th and

5th DCAs TBD

April 2013 Through August 2015

mberCategory Number

E-Filing Submissions 45,013,604

Individual Documents Submitted 70,628,062

Average # of Submissions per Weekday 54,560

Highest Volume Day: June 24 59,085

Highest Peak # of filings in 1 hr: July 27, 4pm 8,288

New Case Initiations 1,464,363

Portal Users 94,538

Court Filing Fees Paid

2011 - Portal Opens for voluntary use

2012 – Voluntary filings

2013 – April 1, Mandatory for attorneys

2014 - Portal used for a full calendar year

2015 – As of August 31, 2015 – 597,591 Transactions

Year Fees

2011 $141,614

2012 $2,622,065

2013 $189,819,998

2014 $234,609,818

2015 $160,015,139

August 2015 Monthly Stats

Category Number

E-Filing Submissions 1,163,550

Individual Documents SubmittedTotal Number of Pages

1,758,0847,813,749

Average Submissions per Weekday 52,054

Highest Volume Day: August 25 57,378

Peak # of filings in 1 hour: 3 pm 7,565

New Case Initiation 58,350

Portal Users 94,538

August Portal Activity by Filer Role

Monthly Submissions and Documents

0

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000

1,400,000

1,600,000

1,800,000

2,000,000

Average E-Filings per Hour

18 11 13 5 11 106306

1570

4013

5253

5855

4602

5067

6315

8183

7832

3379

982

498290 206 243 155

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

1am 2am 3am 4am 5am 6am 7am 8am 9am 10am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm 11pm 12pm

Average # Days to Docket

0.950.92

0.9

1.04 1.03

0.900.94

0.92

0.97 0.98 0.98

1.06

0.75

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

Aug-14 Sep-14 Oct-14 Nov-14 Dec-14 Jan-15 Feb-15 Mar-15 Apr-15 May-15 Jun-15 Jul-15 Aug-15

Series1

0.95 0.92 0.9 1.04 1.03 0.90 0.94 0.92 0.97 0.98 0.98 1.06 0.75

% Filings Returned to Filer for Correction

2.32%

2.18%

2.24%

2.16%

2.23%2.21% 2.20%

2.28%

2.22%

2.16%2.18%

2.10% 2.09%

Aug-14 Sep-14 Oct-14 Nov-14 Dec-14 Jan-15 Feb-15 Mar-15 Apr-15 May-15 Jun-15 Jul-15 Aug-15

www.myflcourtaccess.com

Subscribe to YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/user/FLCrtsEFilingPortal

Access to Videos

Click Video Icon in

the Portal on any

screen

YouTube Video Begins

Coming September 20

Workbench [Draft Folder]

Customize Filer E-mail Notifications you receive

Filer Alerts Page

E-service Page Tabs

Self-Represented Litigant Document Generation Tab [DIY Documents]

Remove Document Group and Type Drop Downs on ‘Add Document Page’

Metadata Responsibility Warning

Remove Yourself from E-service List when added as Other Attorney/Interested Party

Workbench

E-mail Notifications

The Filer [which includes the Clerk Filer] can

select which email notifications to receive

Filer Alerts

Alerts that are monitored

Filing Moved to Pending Queue

E-service Email Delivery Failure

Removal From E-service List Request

When Filer logs in to the Portal if any of the above listed emails have been received, the Filer will see the My Alerts page

Alerts remain on the My Alerts page until cleared or resolved

My Alerts

New E-service Page

DIY Documents Tab

Add/Edit Documents Page

Removed Document Group and Document Type drop downs Added Metadata Warning with link to YouTube video

Removal from E-service List

Information Section

Portal E-Filing News & Info assists filers

E-Filing Portal New Users

The Portal has been expanded so these

groups may E-file:

Available Now Coming September 20

Court Reporters State Agencies – Organization

Law Enforcement Local Agencies – Organization

Mediators Insurance Agencies – Organization

Mental Health Professionals Creditors – Drop down

Process Servers Media – Drop down

Self-Represented Litigants

Clerk Review Side

Mass moving Pending Queue submissions to FFJR [Default is set to off – contact Service Desk to enable when ready]

Ability to create a standard reason to return to the filer when a submission is set to Filed for Judicial Review or Pending Queue

Ability for County to access and edit Organizations you have created

New ‘Accounting Clerk’ role that can view/print reports only

Keystroke functionality to navigate through Review Queue

Ability to view Pending Queue filings without the need to use the Search Filings menu [ Portal Review only]

Icon added to denote ‘Corrected Filing’

When you sort by the ‘Corrected Filing’ icon, retains that result set and allows the Clerk Reviewer to quickly move through the list of corrected submissions

Clerk Review Side

Expanded DOC to include Circuit Civil Division [Habeas Cases]

Added Print feature to Payment Information in Portal Review

Send Filer Role and Bar ID to CCIS 3.0 to comply with 15-18

Web Service for Reports [documentation to be provided]

Chrome Version 42 or above no longer allows Silverlight – Use Firefox [any version] or I.E.

Pending Queue Reasons

County Admins can create Pending Queue and FFJR Reasons

Reason Drop Down

When sending a submission to the Pending Queue, use the Drop Down

to select from a list of standard Pending Queue Reasons created and

approved by each county

Corrected Filing Icon

When a filer submits a correct filing, icon is

attached to submission to designate correct

filing has been resubmitted. Use Filter to

show a list of resubmitted filings.

Filter by Icon

Clerk Reviewer can filter by corrected filing icon and quickly work the list

Major Portal Projects

Implementation of Access to Justice Forms

for Self-Represented Litigant

System-to-System E-Filing for Law Firms

E-Filing Standardization among Counties

Divisions – Should be completed

Case Types – Should be completed

Sub Types – Should be completed

Document Descriptions - Available

Future Releases

Accepting Proposed Orders through the PortalRoute to the Judicial Circuits

Bypass the Clerk

E-service on the Judges

Clerk to Clerk Transfer of Cases

Third Party FilingValue Added Service

Provided by Outside Vendors

Standards to Comply With

Certification by E-Filing Authority Board required

Questions?

Ask away

Happy to provide a demo

Suggestions for us??