Law.com reports that the Miami-Dade Family Court system is taking the plunge toward paperlessness this January:
Miami-Dade Clerk of the Courts Harvey Ruvin recently announced a plan to make much of the division paperless sometime in January. It's a move he estimates will cost about $4 million to implement but save the court system at least $1 million a year by conservative estimates. A similar project that introduced optical imaging technology to the Traffic Division in 1998 saved the court system an estimated $30 million after costing $18 million, according to Ruvin.
Under the current plan, documents would be scanned into a central court server that could be accessed via computer terminals every time someone requests a file. The new court management system is developed by Dallas-based Tyler Technologies and uses the trade name "Odyssey."
Initially the plan was met with some skepticism from some judges, such as child support Magistrate Chantale Suttle, until it became apparent that litigants still would be able to use conventional paper to file.
But a completely electronic system is in the works. The newly minted Complex Business Litigation Division is scheduled to start as a pilot project for electronic filing in June. Ruvin said the County Civil, Probate and City Civil divisions are slated to implement electronic filing eventually.
...As Ruvin pointed out, there are obvious benefits to an electronic filing system, especially in Miami. In a courthouse whose basement extends beneath the water table, it's risky to store paper files too low on shelves for fear they'll get soaked in a flood. This has happened already and court workers had to freeze-dry the documents to keep them intact.
Ruvin points out that paper documents have two other major disadvantages -- they are both unreliable and inaccessible.
"Paper is the least secure of all formats," Ruvin said. "Paper can only be viewed by one person at one place at one time."
Ah, if only Ontario's Attorney General, Michael Bryant, would similarly see the paperless light.
- Garry J. Wise, Toronto
Visit our Toronto Law Firm website: www.wiselaw.net
EMPLOYMENT LAW • CIVIL LITIGATION • WILLS AND ESTATES • FAMILY LAW & DIVORCE
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