By Mary DePrez, Trial Court Technology
Indiana’s Statewide e-filing project began in August 2015 when Hamilton County took a leap of faith and became the first county to test drive e-filing in their trial courts. We have made great strides since then but continue working to achieve the goal of statewide e-filing. We are pleased to report that we are ahead of our target date of making e-filing available in every county before the end of 2018.
Clinton, Howard, Lake, Miami, Pike, Putnam, Wayne, and Wabash counties are among the next counties to convert to the Odyssey Case Management System. These counties are delayed due to the conversion of their legacy case management system.
As soon as court and clerk staff have transitioned to Odyssey, court technology will return to the county to implement Odyssey Task Manager. Odyssey Task Manager allows the courts and clerks to send ‘paperwork’ electronically through work queues.
In addition, Task Manager allows judges to sign documents electronically, and judges and clerks can file-stamp documents if necessary.
2017 e-filing by the numbers
- 76 counties participating, as well as the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, and Tax Court
- 24,213 user accounts
- 4,408,146 documents filed containing 11,688,456 pages
- 11 Electronic Filing Service Providers
With the rapid expansion of e-filing, we have witnessed a doubling of the number of documents that are e-filed each month. When e-filing becomes available in a county, participation is strictly voluntary. Sixty days later e-filing is mandatory for all attorneys. Almost every type of case may now be e-filed and work continues to make e-filing available for all cases.
The complete schedule of counties where e-filing is currently available can be found at courts.in.gov/efile.
Indiana’s e-filing model allows the public to choose from several e-filing service providers. The Supreme Court offers a free plan, and the Court has certified participation by 11 other providers.
On January 10, Chief Justice Loretta Rush highlighted these advancements during the State of the Judiciary:
“In the past year we made extensive progress in modernizing Indiana’s judicial branch; it is a game-changer. We are providing 24/7 access to the courts through electronic filing and an integrated case management system. The transformation of how we do business is astounding: each week 100,000 documents are now electronically filed, and 71% of all new cases are in one case management system.
“Think of the time and cost savings. Litigants can find their case status on their phones instead of missing work to go to the courthouse. And tens of millions of pages no longer need to be copied, stamped, and physically filed. Our goal is for the entire state to be electronically filing within the next year.”