About eFiling for Courts
There are over 17,000 courts in the United States presiding over 90 million cases annually, generating over 1.5 billion documents each year. Those documents are filed at an estimated delivery cost of $11 billion with the annual cost of storage exceeding $2.5 billion. Our courts are literally drowning in paper. The promise of electronic filing has been discussed for a number of years. But the fact remains…our courts are accepting, processing, filing, and retrieving documents today utilizing the same outdated, expensive, manual processes of a generation ago.
eFiling for Courts is the result of an unprecedented initiative developed for the State of Texas by BearingPoint and Microsoft. The unique public/private partnership between Texas and BearingPoint established TexasOnline, the first statewide framework for an electronic government business portal and payment system.
eFiling for Courts is an extension of this partnership that allows courts nationwide to implement electronic filing without an upfront investment in software or hardware. The solution allows states to innovate without cost to the taxpayer. The costs of providing the service are recouped through transaction fees charged to the filers. Depending on the implementation model, transaction fees may also be shared with the courts as revenue to further fund related technology initiatives.
How eFiling for Courts Works
eFiling for Courts presents two distinct application components––filer facing services and court facing services. Courts may implement the eFiling solution as a single module, with separate modules, or using separate vendors or service providers to provide the components. This “open” approach optimizes flexibility for each Court’s specific implementation needs.
The Electronic Filing Manager (EFM––referenced in Figure 1 as the “Statewide eFiling System” or “Post Office”) is the primary component to facilitate the eFiling project. The EFM is designed as a transport mechanism and provides the Court Clerk with electronic review and approval capabilities for filings. The EFM also standardizes document transmission and payment between discrete and differing systems. The EFM will allow all filers access to file in multiple jurisdictions without incurring paper processing costs, travel costs, hand delivery charges, or facing a daunting array of differing filing rules, fees, standards, and deadlines.
The Electronic Filing Service Provider (EFSP––referenced in Figure 1 as the “Service Providers” or “Mailbox”) is the application component that provides a user interface from the system to the filer. The EFM can support other commercial third-party EFSP’s that meet the Court Filing Standards. The user interface is through a browser and delivered via a connection to the Internet. BearingPoint has developed a proprietary EFSP, which may be branded, if desired, to a specific Court.