 To date, as part of a pilot project, only five counties in Illinois have been
approved to operate e-filing systems, mostly on a limited basis. Those counties
are Cook, DuPage, Madison, St. Clair and Will. The announcement ends the pilot
stage of e-filing in Illinois and allows all circuit court clerks to move to
permanent and ongoing procedures, if they so wish.The new statewide
principles and standards, new Supreme Court Rule 138 and amended Supreme Court
Rule 201, give the go-ahead to civil case e-filing, while placing an emphasis on
protecting against identify theft and disclosure of sensitive information. They
do this by protecting personal identity information such as Social Security
numbers, birth dates, mother's maiden names, driver's license numbers, financial
account numbers, and debit and credit card numbers. This information will be
barred from documents or exhibits filed with the court -- whether in a paper or
electronic filing. Discovery responses are prohibited from filing as well,
absent leave of court.
The new standards and rules will apply only to civil cases. They are the
product of the Illinois Supreme Court Special E-Business Committee announced by
Kilbride in June 2011, chaired by Chicago lawyer Bruce Pfaff.
"Illinois is behind on using e-business and e-filing in its courts. We know
that," Kilbride said. "These uniform, statewide standards allow e-filing in our
courts; it is no longer part of a wish list. Circuit courts may now use
e-filing's greater efficiencies and long-range cost savings in addition to
offering a modern way of doing things."
The Supreme Court also announced Wednesday an amendment to Supreme Court Rule
11 to allow service of documents electronically in the trial courts. Attorneys
and parties must include an email address for service of documents on
appearances and pleadings filed in the court.
The new standards and rules will go into effect Jan. 1. This will allow
circuit court clerks, chief judges, judges and attorneys sufficient lead time to
make required changes to court operations and automated systems. In the interim,
the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, under its director, Michael J.
Tardy, will schedule regional meetings with stakeholders, including chief
judges, circuit court clerks and court management system vendors, to chart the
way to best move forward for each individual county.
"This is a great day," said Pfaff, the chairman of the special committee, who
runs a law office that is essentially paperless. "Behind the initiative of Chief
Justice Kilbride and approval of e-business by the entire Supreme Court, the
legal system in Illinois will become more efficient and significantly less
expensive to operate. Any county that wishes can adopt e-filing and electronic
document management systems and start to take advantage of the power of
computers.
"Issues relating to personal privacy have been resolved to the satisfaction
of the Supreme Court and those committees which studied the matter. Our
committee thanks all of the court clerks and their staffs from around the
country that freely gave their time and expertise to help us choose a set of
standards and guidelines that allows Illinois to move forward."
There are several jurisdictions around the nation, including the federal
courts' PACER system, that use e-filing and other e-technologies.
But there are special challenges associated with e-filing in Illinois. The
challenges stem from the fact that Illinois is comprised of 102 counties
organized within 23 circuit court jurisdictions and five appellate districts.
Both the state and the counties provide financial support for the operation of
the courts.
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Complicating the matter further in Illinois, there are at least 12
different circuit court management software systems operating in the
various court jurisdictions. Under the new statewide standards,
these management systems have to be integrated with any e-filing
program. Implementation requires the cooperation of various entities
within a county, including software vendors.
"The chief judge and the elected circuit court clerk will have to
agree on implementing an e-filing program and inform the Supreme
Court that their system is in accordance with the standards and the
rules," said Tardy, who serves as director of the Supreme Court's
administrative arm. "Each county has different priorities, needs and
resources. I expect some counties, especially those which have been
operating pilot programs, will choose to go forward as soon as they
can. Others may wait to see how e-filing develops in counties
similar to theirs."
New Supreme Court Rule 138, which applies to both paper and
electronic filings, defines and prohibits personal identity
information from inclusion in documents or exhibits filed with the
court, and if a court orders the filing of documents that contain
personal identity information, it establishes specific steps to file
it under seal in a separate document.
Supreme Court Rule 201 is amended to prohibit the filing of any
discovery, which often contains sensitive and personal information,
and much of which does not rise to evidence at trial.
The e-filing standards do not preclude an e-filing vendor from
charging fees for electronic filing, but no additional fee may be
charged by the clerk of the circuit court, and no vendor fee may be
shared with the clerk.
Since his colleagues elected him chief justice in October 2010,
Kilbride has moved to make Illinois court operations more
economical, more efficient and more user-friendly by implementing
improvements in technology. E-filing is still under way as a pilot
project in the Supreme Court; in addition, several Illinois counties
are participating in pilot projects that allow attorneys, parties
and appellate justices to electronically view, access and work from
the official record of cases on appeal.
The Special E-Business Committee consulted with representatives
from bar groups, appellate lawyers, circuit court clerks and members
of the Illinois Judicial Conference.
Along with chair Bruce Pfaff, the committee members are Sterling
attorney Trent L. Bush, Chicago attorney David M. Hundley,
Edwardsville attorney Rebecca R. Jackson, Chicago attorney Vanessa
G. Jacobsen, Northbrook attorney Alan Pearlman, Wheaton attorney
Edward J. Walsh and Springfield attorney Thomas H. Wilson.
Ex-officio members of the committee are Carolyn Taft Grosboll,
Illinois Supreme Court clerk, and Carla Bender, 4th District
Appellate Court clerk.
[Text from file
received from the
Illinois Supreme Court] |
