JEFFERSONVILLE — The Clark County government offices that have been working through the transition of implementing e-filing have until Sept. 1 to move online.
At the start of this year, Clark County became the second of Indiana’s 92 counties to get on board with the system, something Clark County Clerk Susan Popp said had been an important step for several reasons.
“It became critical to jump in there early for financial support from the state and the fact that Clark County wanted to take the lead on e-filing,” she said.
All the counties will eventually be mandated to use the system but the timelines are staggered. Right now Clark County is one of 11 with the Sept. 1 deadline, with 13 more counties following later in the year.
“Because we are second out of 92, we are on a timeline that any subsequent filings by attorneys have to be e-filed by Sept 1., so that is a very aggressive timeline,” she said. “We started this on Jan 19 and Sept. 1, any subsequent filings have to be e-filed. Let’s say someone has filed a case, if an attorney wants to bring in additionally to that case weather they’re on either side of that case, they have to go through the e-file system.”
The courts and other affiliated offices, as well as attorneys in the area who go through them, have been using the system in different capacities since the initial implementation in January.
“We’re finding it’s going to be much more efficient,” Popp said, adding that “whenever there’s a transition, there’s more work upfront. It’s the growing pains of any change in procedure.”
Jeremy Mull, Clark County prosecutor, said he can see more of the value of the system in a few months when the bugs are worked out, but right now it’s causing more work for his office and staff.
“In the long-term, I think it’s going to be positive,” he said. “I will say that the transitioning is a very time-intensive, labor-intensive thing.”
He said in addition to extra upfront costs associated with integrating a new system, there is the time spent training and correcting issues, plus the fact that some process are multiplied right now.
“We haven’t transitioned completely over to e-filing yet so for example my office is e-filing some documents but we have to, for different reasons, print out paper copies of some of those same documents to walk them downstairs, so it’s almost like double work to get some of this stuff filed at present,” he said. “That should change in the next few weeks and months.
“I think in the long term it’s going to be a very beneficial thing for our office and for the taxpayers.”
Attorney Larry Wilder said he has been a little hesitant to jump right in with the system, but said it will be a benefit when it’s implemented.
“I think it’s a good thing, we have been doing it in federal court for years now,” he said. “In federal courts you have only one way you can file and that’s through the e-system and I think it’s a good thing that people can get online and look at things.”
Clark County Circuit Court No. 1 Judge Andrew Adams said he’s already found the new system beneficial to him, his clerks and the people involved in many of the cases he presides over, as far as expedience.
He said he uses the system about 85 to 90 percent of the time, but admitted his cases are a little different because he handles mainly civil issues.
But he can access new parts of older cases and work more quickly than before.
If a lawsuit was filed a year ago, there could have been a motion for summary judgment, a response, a reply to that response, and “all of those will be at my fingertips out there on the bench,” he said. There is a touchscreen computer right there.
“When I’m looking at an order or a motion that’s proposed, I can pull the case up and look at the motions and the replies that were filed and then rule on it all from my computer, not having to get the physical file and review those,” he said.
He said before the process could take much longer.
“If a motion was submitted, it would take a day or two in the clerk’s office, a day or two to be brought up to the court in a stack, someone would have to go through that stack to separate it, to go to the different courts ... it was usually about a seven-to-10-day turnaround on a lot of motions.”