CALSPro - California Association of Legal Support Professionals

eFiling in Orange County

Posted January 23, 2012 in Membership, Technology

e-filing. Just hearing the word is enough to make some court runners and attorney services get nervous; especially those attorney services earning a significant portion of their revenue from physical court filing. That being said, the demand for e-filing with the superior courts is on the rise.

When e-filing began in June of 2010, a single Electronic Filing Service Provider (EFSP) provided an interface for attorneys and individuals to electronically file documents directly with the court in Orange. Attorney services had to build their own e-filing interface to e-file with the court, or refer their clients to the Court’s website for them to access the existing EFSP and obtain e-filing capability. As of January first of this year the types of cases that are required to be e-filed in Orange County has grown, and as such, so has the concerns amongst attorney services that cover Orange County that they would lose out on this portion of this business.

The concern can now be eased as there are additional EFSP’s now available for electronic filing in Orange who allows third parties (attorney services) to e-file on behalf of their clients.

Now, if an attorney service has a document that needs to be e-filed with Orange County, they can set up an account and e-file through an EFSP by manually entering the information into their system. For some attorney services, this is another option, rather than building their own  e-filing system or turning their clients away.

We have heard that other companies have built or are currently in the development stages of efiling systems where the law firm clients of an attorney service might have the option of doing the data entry and submitting it through their attorney service’s site or a possibly a site with their attorney service’s name and logo will be on it.

The CALSPro Technology Committee will be keeping a careful watch on the progression of efiling, and will continue to keep our membership informed of any new developments.