By Janelle O’Malley, Director of E-filing and Innovation • Indiana Office of Court Technology
Indiana’s Supreme Court is writing a new chapter in its digital journey, defined by independence and innovation. For a decade, Indiana has relied on a national vendor, Tyler Technologies, to support e-filing. Now, with experience and vision, Indiana’s judiciary is developing INfile, its own e-filing platform—tailored to the unique needs of Indiana’s courts, clerks, attorneys, and litigants. This project will give Indiana courts ownership of this critical technology and is projected to go live by the end of 2025.
A Decade of Progress
Indiana courts’ statewide e-filing project began in 2015, and the current platform was rolled out to all 92 county trial courts by 2019. In her first State of the Judiciary in January 2015, Chief Justice Loretta Rush announced that Indiana courts would begin offering e-filing and that it would “transform the way Hoosiers interact with the courts.” This has certainly proven true over the last 10 years.
The beginning of Indiana’s e-filing story started with a competitive process. Software from Tyler Technologies was selected to be the e-filing manager—the central hub that filings from multiple e-filing service providers flow through—and to provide a no-cost e-filing option to the litigants and attorneys in the state. Since the very first case was e-filed using this new statewide system, all county courts have converted to using Odyssey, and clerks and courts process over 70,000 e-filings per day. With this foundation, Indiana courts are poised to turn the page and begin a new chapter on this journey.
Why Now?
As attorneys and judges in Indiana know, Indiana’s filing procedures differ from other states. The current e-filing platform requires workarounds that do not exactly fit Indiana’s unique needs. Over the years, attorneys, courts, clerks, and e-filing service providers have requested additional features to better match Indiana’s practice. In addition, technology has evolved in a way that allows the courts to leverage modern tools and features.
Few states blend a statewide trial and appellate court system with full digital integration across civil and criminal cases. Indiana’s judiciary is a leader in this space. In Indiana, a court case often starts with e-filing, but it branches off into many other integrated electronic processes that serve attorneys and litigants.
For example:
- The Supreme Court offers a fully integrated case management system to all 92 counties, continuing the paperless workflow from e-filing through digital management and signing of orders by the court
- Signed orders and hearing notices are delivered to attorneys and parties via email, and text message reminders are sent to parties
- Documents and case updates are posted online via MyCase
Many of these services were implemented by the Office of Court Technology in response to the distinct needs of Indiana’s courts and litigants. Similarly, a custom-built e-filing product will respond to and incorporate the requests and opportunities our courts have realized over the past decade.
Built for Indiana, by Indiana
In building a new e-filing system, one of the key focus areas was integrating all criminal case filings into INfile to improve the criminal case filing data collection and accuracy. Currently, new criminal cases are e-filed through a different system than other case types. INfile will move initial criminal filings into the same platform used for all other filings, improving integration with law enforcement, prosecutors, and public defenders. The end product will reduce data errors and duplicative records that may result in errors or omissions on the criminal history records housed at the Indiana State Police’s Criminal History Record Information System. Additionally, having initial criminal filings in the same system as civil filings will streamline the process for clerk reviewers, providing a centralized system for all filings.
In-house development also creates opportunities for better integration across many systems. For example, protection order cases are currently filed through a separate e-filing provider, but this system will be redeveloped to ensure attorneys can file POs according to the normal e-filing process, and self-represented litigants will have a more customized filing experience.
INfile’s architecture will incorporate internationalization principles, making multi-lingual capabilities a possibility for the new e-filing service. Translation of the website fields and menus will improve language access, making e-filing available to more Hoosiers when these translations are implemented.
Ongoing Partnerships
The Indiana courts remain partnered with Tyler Technologies as they offer their support through this transition, and as the provider of our statewide case management system, Odyssey. Other collaborations will continue with our many e-filing providers, legal aid organizations, bar associations, and other technology partners to provide an Indiana-tailored e-filing environment. Courts and clerks are key stakeholders throughout this undertaking with the goal of providing a more streamlined user experience, better data collection abilities, and fewer technical issues.
In the future, IOCT plans to add more automation, reducing the need for manual entry and helping users manage high-volume workloads. If filings flow faster, with complete data, and without errors, access to justice will be heightened for Indiana litigants.
With the transition to INfile, the Office of Court Technology will assume full responsibility for supporting courts, clerks, and filers; a task currently shared with the vendor. This shift means that our team will provide direct assistance for both technical issues and user business process questions by collaborating among OJA internal teams to provide support. Our team will also provide training modules and documentation to users prior to the transition.
Same Book, New Chapter: A Confident Leap Forward
After a decade of experience with e-filing, Indiana’s judiciary is moving forward with confidence and purpose through self-powered innovation. Designed with courts, clerks, attorneys, and litigants in mind, Indiana is writing the next chapter in digital justice ensuring technology continues to serve the people at the heart of it.
The new e-filing platform reflects the Court’s ongoing commitments to greater access, efficiency, and service to our customers.