E-filing has been a welcome and relatively easily implemented improvement in the way trial courts do business. It makes us more accessible to the public and it allows us substantial efficiencies in work flow and processing. Chief Justice Loretta Rush was correct when she noted in her 2015 State of The Judiciary Address that “e-filing would transform the way Hoosiers interact with the courts.” I would add that e-filing and the advent of digital files has transformed the way I do my work. My work is now available for me anytime I sit before a computer screen. I can easily access the documents that I need to review and the orders that I need to sign with a few mouse clicks. I can continue processing that work without ever leaving my desk.
Perhaps the most positive impact has been the efficiency with which I can now locate documents I need within the file by using key word searches in searchable PDF documents. Since we implemented digital files in conjunction with implementing e-filing, I have not had a single document go missing, had a document appear in the wrong file, or had a document filed in the wrong location within the file. What a joy that has been.
I will not tell you that these changes have not also caused discomfort. Change regardless of the ultimate result is always difficult. I have had to re-evaluate the way I work, and after understanding how the new tools I have can assist me in doing my work, I have made changes in how I do my job every day. Not in the way I decide cases. Not in the decisions I make on specific cases. No one has received a sentence a day longer or a day shorter because of those changes. Rather the changes have been when I review my work and where I review my work. The best result of all is that I am now more efficient in my work and find myself through my daily work faster than before all these changes began.